ACT TEACHERS PARTYLIST

The ACT TEACHERS Partylist held a protest today at the main office of the Commission on Elections in Intramuros to denounce the poll body’s inaction on concerns that hundreds of thousands of public school teachers will be deprived of their right to vote in the May 2010 polls.

Around thirty members of ACT TEACHERS Partylist held a sit-down protest in front of the main entrance of the COMELEC office, chanting slogans, carrying placards, and demanding an audience with COMELEC officials.

“It would be the height of injustice if the teachers who will work on election day to ensure that millions of citizens can vote will themselves be deprived of their own right to vote,” said ACT TEACHERS Partylist president Antonio Tinio. “Sadly, COMELEC has not done enough to address this issue.”

The ACT TEACHERS Partylist led a protest action this morning at the head office of the Government Service Insurance System in Pasay City.

Around 30 placard-bearing teachers and school employees picketed the main gate of the GSIS compound. Several speakers denounced the oppressive policies of the GSIS and its President and General Manager Winston Garcia, describing him as “incompetent” and “insensitive” to the plight of the country’s 1.5 million GSIS members. The protesters lobbed paint bombs at a large portrait of Garcia and President Gloria Arroyo, whom the protesters criticized for her continued support of the unpopular GSIS administrator. The protesters then concluded their protest by burning the images of Garcia and Arroyo.

BACK TO BASICS: EDUCATION IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE STATE

ACT TEACHERS Partylist – PUP

Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy – PUP

March 22, 2010

The cornerstone of all successful economies is an enlightened, skilled and socially active citizenry—this is a fact that has time and again been proven in history. Without a creative, willful, socio-politically conscious population, even the greatest of all economic development programs will certainly fail because its people are the core, indispensable resources of the state. Education therefore must be at the fundaments of all economic development agenda of any state. It is a supreme irony therefore for the government to throw to society—to its people—the burden of turning them into these core indispensable resources. Doing so is like a government turning its back to its society and history. Such is the essence of increasing tuition fees in state universities and colleges, which the current PUP administration is hell-bent to do.