Urban poor group challenges UP studes to end system that kills Kristel

As the relatives, friends and activists brought Kristel Tejada to her grave yesterday morning, progressive urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY) challenges students of the University of the Philippines to end the system that it alleges to have killed the 16-year old BS Behavioral Psychology student. 

KADAMAY claims that Kristel is a victim of a 'system that has valued profit over the welfare of the people, a system which has created an educational system that treats education as a privilege rather than a right'. 

In a statement released to media, the group further cites that "the  country's premiere state university, in years, has faded down as the bastion of higher learning for young and bright Filipinos. The past and present administrations of UP have worked in connivance with the state to impose higher tuition fees thus limiting the chances for poor and patriotic minds to enter UP. They have ensured that the culture of individualism is instilled in every graduate of the state university. 

"Gone may be the days when progressive UP students barricaded their campuses to make their stand heard on pressing issues that hound the nation," Gloria Arellano, KADAMAY national chair, added. 

"There is a bigger challenge now for the remaining progressive minds among the UP faculty and studentry to strive harder to counter the dominant individualistic and career-oriented culture in UP, and to bring every bright mind in UP into understanding the country's socio-economic realities which lead to the death of Tejada," Arellano remarked. 

"The burning desire for learning innate to young minds as Kristel's has to be transformed into a desire for real change, far different from the matuwid na daan being bannered by the Aquino administration," said the leader said

We dare our dear students of UP to act now as the nation has been waiting too long for another Diliman Commune and First Quarter Storm led by UP students to fuel the nationalist and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people," ended Arellano. ###

Reference: Gloria Arellano, KADAMAY national chair, 0921.392.7457