ST students brace up to prepare for ‘strikes’ against budget cuts

“Our call is clear: ‘edukasyon hindi gyera, libro hindi bala.’”

This is the reverberating message of Allen Lemuel Lemence, Save our Education Movement spokesperson, during a series of room-to-room discussions conducted in University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB) since August to urge the UPLB constituents to link up arms and take actions against this year’s P800-million budget cut in UP.

Save Our Education Movement is gathering students, teachers and non-academic personnel on September 15 to conduct various forms of support to the cause for sufficient state subsidy for education and other social services.

A march in UPLB will gather 100 students tomorrow to mark the beginning of the ST countdown to the peak of the campaign, which is a University Strike against budget cuts in September 23.

UPLB chapter of the alliance Save our Education Movement also launched the “Pose to Oppose Budget Cuts”, a Facebook campaign wherein supporters mark their profile pictures with the slogan “I pose to oppose budget cuts”. This is along with other online campaigns such as the Kilos Na Laban sa Budget Cuts and Save our Education Movement Facebook fanpages. They are also gathering “plankers” for their campaign “800 Plankers against P800-Million Budget Cut in UP”.

A simultaneous manifesto signing and ribbon wearing are also set to intensify in other Southern Tagalong state universities such as Cavite State University and Southern Luzon State University.

“We are taking the issue seriously that is why we are raising the campaign to a higher level especially at this time when the Department of Budget and Management, Department of Education, several other government agencies and PNoy himself are ‘tweeting’ twisted and misleading arguments to justify the unjust series of budget cuts,” Lemence added.

Few days after the National Expenditure Program (NEP) 2012 was proposed in Congress, Save our Education Movement was re-launched in August 2 at UPLB, gathering various organizations, party-lists, alliances, unions and concerned individuals. The event also became the beginning of their campaign for a ‘pro-people national budget’, which they describe as a budget expenditure program wherein basic social services such as education, housing and healthcare receive the highest budget allocation.

Save our Education Movement is the Southern Tagalog-based alliance of the Kilos Na Laban sa Budget Cuts, which serve as the center of a nationwide campaign against budget cuts since August. Kilos Na will also hold various protest actions tomorrow and in the next days such as the Blog Action Day in September 16 and Strikes in September 19 to 23. ###

For more inquiries, please visit/contact the following:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150801436640363.738973.868930362
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-our-Education-Movement/228972813811472
http://www.facebook.com/groups/135621703197315/?ref=ts
http://www.facebook.com/groups/135621703197315/?ref=ts#!/pages/Plank-to-Strike-for-Sufficient-State-Subsidy-092311/214895688568242
http://www.facebook.com/groups/135621703197315/?ref=ts#!/cegp.national?sk=wall

Reference: Allen Lemuel Lemence
Spokesperson, Save our Education Movement
saveoureducationmovt@gmail.com ; 09272771096
Facebook: Save our Education Movement

Strike Leads
Facebook: CEGP Pambansang Opisina

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