Remembering UP

Studying at UP was not a matter of choice but a matter of chance for me. First, I happened to be a high school student at a public school unknown to many, and perhaps, one of the least priorities to become recipient of many opportunities for post high school student scholarships. When the notice of UPCAT (University of the Philippines College Admission Test) admission was sent to our school, I was fortunate to be chosen as one of the five students to take the UPCAT at one of the universities in Bacolod City. With P50 and guts as my only baon, I hurdled the gruelling exam with an empty stomach and low self-esteem upon seeing my co-examinees who were not only loaded with yummy foods & moral support from their families, but who mostly came from private schools (if my memory would serve me right, I only had PEWEE as lunch at that time). I left the examination room hungry not only for food but also of confidence, self-awareness and affirmation (i almost could not make it to the exam because my sister had to undergo a caesarean operation and my family was very much financially constraint at that time). But I made it through the last bitter end. I still managed to hand in my examination paper, charged that exam to experience and thrown all my cautions to the wind, but perhaps UP was fate’s gift to me. I conquered the exam, and the rest was history. I am writing this to reminisce how I found a place in the country’s premier state university. And as UP commemorates its centenary, I honour my alma mater with so much pride and awe. I stand proud that in one way or another, I did my small but significant contributions to the people’s struggle. The university continues to be a bastion of activism. And this is to dispel the baseless accusations that UP has already lost its soul (referring to the culture of militancy and activism and the progressive tradition of the university). To this day, I believe that the university is still very much connected with the social realities and it does not operate in a social vacuum. To this very day, the UP community is still very much affected by issues such as graft and corruption, foreign debt, poverty, extrajudicial killings, state repression, human rights violations, and many other issues that can radicalize people. In my formative years in UP, I was hammered with the reality that the problems besetting the university are intimately linked with the problems of society. And as Iskolar ng Bayan, it is my bounden duty to study the people’s issues by heart and take active role in community development works or in any form of public service. This ideological formation had ripened to issue articulation in classroom interactions, FGDs, fora, immersion and demonstrations within and outside the confines of the university. The DILIMAN experience I was an irregular student (I enrolled on the 2nd semester of my 1st year at UP Cebu College due to the delay of the results of the STFAP scholarship) and supposed to graduate in October of 2000, but to my sister’s prodding and boldness, she asked me to take my two last subjects at UP Diliman notwithstanding the financial uncertainties she had at that time. I heed her call though. Three months at UP Diliman were stories of more awakenings, humility, scarcity and victory. The huge UP campus is a melting pot not only of diverse and weird personalities and sub-cultures but also of people of sharply distinct and polarized persuasions. I encountered many of them in my STS and Sociology class, in the canteens, in hallways, in dormitories, and in almost all four corners of the university—overhearing their cerebral discussions on vast range of issues i.e. macroeconomics, financial crisis & peso devaluation, gay rights, women’s issues, technology transfer, campus reforms & UP charter, crisis in governance, etc. All of these led me to one conclusion—that activism is really not a product of academic indoctrination but is borne out of existing social contradictions; that as long as the nation continues to be in crisis and the objective conditions dictate, the spectre of activism will hunt a country like a ghost; that crisis and activism are inseparable; and that activism is not something that a university can feed nor inculcate to their students, but something that one has to embark on because it is human nature to despise evils in society. I was humbled with the learning and awareness I had at UP Diliman. I felt closer to my alma mater on those times. I felt I owe so much to the people who pay for my education because it was through them that I gained the kind of wisdom that can transcend mediocrities. I was so proud of myself not because of the prestige that goes with being a UPian, but because I got the kind of education that liberates and empowers; the kind of institutional learning that fosters accountability to one’s country--one that instills sense of nationalism and patriotism. And who would dare to forget scarcity while in UP Diliman? In my three months stay there, I could only count in my fingers how often I went out from the campus due to financial dearth. I would even set aside a portion of my lunch to secure my dinner. I could not even buy that coveted UP souvenir T-shirt (but yehey! Alvin just bought me two UP souvenir baby Tees :-). That was scarcity in its sheer form. But I was rewarded for all of life’s destitutions—ni graduate gyud ko sa UP Dil and even got flat 1 and 1.08 in my Sociology and STS subjects respectively. :=) (not bad for one who had a hard time communicating in Tagalog considering that this was the medium of instruction in my two subjects) Hail to UP in its 100 years I pay tribute to my beloved Alma Mater. In its 100 years, it remains a hallmark of liberal education and its progressive and positive principles of academic freedom and excellence that allows the free flow of radical thoughts and ideas among students and teachers in the pursuit of collective activism. I hope that UP will remain true to its fervent commitment to soar this country to greater heights. And if in the passage of time UP will no longer remains to be a radical institution, it will always be inhabited by radical students and teachers who will continue to propagate radical ideas that will be amplified within and outside the confines of the university. Like people power, UP activism is not DEAD. Time and again, UP students, teachers and faculties were there in those trying times of our nation’s history, and continue to be with the people’s struggle. I believe that as a UPian, this is something that one could be very much proud of as the university’s legacy and distinction. The likes of Neri are but an exception; and the so-called “rich kids” labeled as the new majority, and the many cars parked in the campus do not mark the death of UP activism. Being rich or economically well off does not make one least of an activist. In fact, I’ve known some of those “rich kids” went up the mountains to fight for social change. There is really no hard and fast rule in the altar of activism. I pay tribute and give due recognition to the many activists before us, those who were with us, and even those who were after us who selflessly poured their energies, rallied and mobilized during the early years of the university, during the period of war and colonial occupations, during the First Quarter Storm and the long and painstaking years spent resisting Marcos dictatorship, during the two EDSAs, and up to the present time. UP is now confronting huge challenges ahead couched in the centennial theme “UP: Excellence, Service, and Leadership in the Next 100 Years.” Indeed, it is moving into the future with goals that are ever more expansive and demanding. To quote from the university’s website, “Excellence takes the form of not only developing but also discovering new areas of knowledge. Service goes beyond conducting research to include designing workable and effective action plans. And leadership demands transforming the nation through pioneering endeavors that serve as blueprints for national development.” For UP, the next century has really just begun.