ANAKBAYAN-NCR Statement of Solidarity for FEU Professor Joey Ting

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Anakbayan National Capital Region

Statement of Solidarity for FEU Faculty Association President Joey Ting

Anakbayan National Capital Region and its local chapter in FEU condemn in the highest terms the series of harassment incidents perpetrated by the FEU Administration through its security officers against FEU Faculty Association President, Mr. Joey Ting. We join the FEU studentry and faculty in their call to defend campus democracy against repression. We join them in their declaration that there now exist a state of campus Martial Law in FEU and that this Martial Law must be ended now!

The FEU Administration has shown clearly how little it respects the rights of the members of its academic community, an utter disrespect highlighted by the mere fact that Mr. Ting, being an elected officer of the faculty union, could have merited him with the same respect as one would give to other school officials but has completely experienced the contrary. The Administration has even gone to the extent of warranting its security officers to commit physical harm against Mr. Ting.

What has Mr. Ting done to invite this clear antagonism from the FEU Administration?

It is to be noted that these incidents came as the Faculty Union engages in a Collective Bargaining Agreement with the FEU Administration. Here professors negotiate over salary increases, benefits and other matters deemed important by both parties.

It is of general knowledge to most students, and could be attested to by professors, that the FEU Administration has tried vainly to derail the past collective bargaining process. It has continually refused to give in to the just demands that the professors presented on the table, it even tried to rig the ballots of the CBA approval, or in fact the fake CBA’s disapproval. Its desire to preserve for itself the super-profits of the institution has pushed it to the limits of a respectable educational institution it projects itself to be. On the contrary it has shown the true nature of FEU, a Business Enterprise handled by the fiercest Capitalist Educators! Making the tag as the Fastest Earning University a well earned moniker!

We stand firm with the faculty union in presenting a justifiable demand in the CBA! We stand firm in our call that professors and other employees must receive what they worked hard for!

The unjust increases in tuition and miscellaneous fees have burdened the students from year to year. Annually the Administration hikes the tuition on an average of 10-15 percent, ranking FEU among the top profit grosser among a long list of large business enterprises in the country. The law mandates FEU, and other private educational institutions, to allot 70 percent of its gross income to salary increases and other financial incentives for its employees, 20 percent to facility development, and only allows it to pocket the remaining 10 percent. But clearly this is not the case. On one hand, the owners of FEU swallow up the bulk of profits, while leaving its employees to make do with whatever little is left, on the other. It angers us to know that the money the students pay for the already exorbitant fees, the money that their parents worked hard for, are being kept from the hands of the people who labored for it.

We stand firm with the students and the faculty in condemning the attacks on our democratic rights!

What happened to Mr. Ting was not the first time this kind of incident happened in FEU. Students who are members of FEU chapters of progressive organizations have long been the subject of harassments from the administration and its security personnel. Several times have our members been subjected to threats and intimidations because of their pro-student and pro-people advocacies. This recent incident has clearly showed us that the FEU Administration will stop at nothing in harassing advocates of students’ and teachers’ rights. It clearly showed us that they will let no one stand in their way of gaining super-profits, not students, not even elected faculty officials; they have showed us that they will deal with any opposition in whatever forms they deem necessary, be it intimidation or physical attack.

The sudden employment of ex-military men as security officers underscores this fact and also presents itself as a start of this intensified campus repression, this also threatens what little academic freedom FEU students and faculty members still enjoy. The incident poses itself as a fearful precedent.

The commercialized and fascist state of the Philippine educational system and the institutions under it manifests itself here more clearly. Education has been reduced to mere profiteering machines run by petty dictators. The Arroyo regime has not only encouraged but has headed this further corruption of our educational system. Indeed it also warranted the suppression of advocates of the academes welfare. Scores of students and professionals have fell victims to the states fascist apparatuses, a significant number have been victims of extra-judicial killings and abductions.

The attack on Mr.Ting is a just one of the spate of reppression happening across campuses all over the country; one incident too many, one incident that must not be brushed aside.

In this, we call on all the students and the faculty to further strengthen their unity to defend their democratic rights!