Students set bigger walkouts on July 18

MANILA, Philippines - Student activists have picked July 18 as the date for the next nationwide walkout to protest what they perceived as government inaction toward the soaring prices of oil and other basic commodities. Next week’s protest will be a follow-up to the walkout staged by students from at least four major universities Thursday, according to League of Filipino Students (LFS) Chairperson Vencer Crisostomo. "The Arroyo administration cannot continue to ignore demands for the scrapping of (value-added tax) on oil. Consumers, including students, are receiving the hardest blows from weekly oil price hikes,” Crisostomo said. Students who participated in Thursday’s walkout were mostly from the University of the Philippines in Manila and Diliman, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Adamson University, and Philippine Christian University. Students from some public high schools in Metro Manila also joined the protest action. Students from Baguio City, Cebu, Davao, Negros and Laguna also staged their own programs and protest actions in their respective key cities and provinces Thursday. The student participants echoed the calls of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines and other concerned sectors for the scrapping of the VAT on oil and the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law. “The government's reasons for not scrapping VAT on oil are hollow compared to the reasons why students have opted to walk out of their classes today in protest against crippling oil prices," Crisostomo said. For his part, Anakbayan Chairperson Ken Ramos criticized Malacañang's refusal to even entertain calls for a wage hike. "While we understand drivers and operators' demand for a fare increase, for instance, how can this government expect us to cope with the meager wages and salaries of our parents? So-called subsidies are but fleeting and insufficient. This government is not offering the public anything substantial to live,” he said. The student walkouts are part of Youth Act Now's (Youth for Accountability and Truth Now) National Youth Action Day spearheaded by the alliance's member organizations, the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Kabataang Pinoy, Student Christian Movement (SCM), Liga ng Kabataang Moro, Youth Revolt, Anakbayan LFS. - GMANews.TV