PHILIPPINES: Filipino students scuffle with security during tuition fee hike protest

Record ID: 570791

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: Filipino students scuffle with security during tuition fee hike protest
  • Date: 6th March 2014
  • Summary: MANILA, PHILIPPINES (MARCH 6, 2014) (REUTERS) STUDENTS SHOUTING (Filipino): "NO CHANGE, UNDER AQUINO" STUDENTS WALKING BACKWARDS AFTER BEING TOLD BY SECURITY TO MOVE BACK PROTESTERS ON ROAD OUTSIDE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY GROUP (PSG) PERSONNEL PUSHING PROTESTER PSG PERSONNEL SCUFFLING WITH PROTESTERS PSG PERSONNEL PUSHING PROTESTERS POLICE PUSHING PROTESTERS PROTESTERS PUSHING AGAINST POLICE SHIELD VARIOUS OF PSG PERSONNEL PUSHING AWAY PROTESTERS WITH SHIELD POLICE PUSHING PROTESTERS BACK POLICE CLOSING GATE IN FRONT OF PROTESTERS, WHO WERE PUSHED TO ANOTHER STREET PROTESTERS SHOUTING VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS HOLDING PLACARDS (SOUNDBITE) (Filipino) SPOKESPERSON OF GABRIELA-YOUTH, KAMIL MANANGAN, SAYING: "There is no significant action from the government, especially this president, to resolve the yearly increase in tuition, in school fees." PROTESTERS GATHERED PROTESTER SHOUTING PROTESTERS WALKING AND CHANTING (Filipino): "REJECT, FIGHT AGAINST, DO NOT TOLERATE MORE TUITION FEE INCREASES"
  • Embargoed: 21st March 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Philippines
  • Country: Philippines
  • Topics: Education
  • Reuters ID: LVA72CUGT2Y4IEHHKW9E6NHLVZQZ
  • Story Text: Filipino students rallied in front of the presidential palace in Manila on Thursday (March 6), protesting tuition fee hikes.
    Around 50 members of Gabriela-Youth, a leftist women's rights organisation, scuffled with police and security personnel as they marched towards Malacanang palace, where President Benigno Aquino's office is located.
    No injuries were reported.
    The activists said that the education sector has increasingly been commercialised as it engages in partnerships with large corporations, and a meagre budget allotted for the education sector forces schools to pass on the burden to students who must pay higher fees.

    "There is no significant action from the government, especially this president, to resolve the yearly increase in tuition, in school fees," Gabriela-Youth spokesperson Kamil Manangan said.
    Demonstrators said the rally coincides with the death anniversary of a university student, Kristel Tejada, who committed suicide a year ago allegedly due to difficulties in making her tuition payments. Her case, they say, is a result of the failure of the government to address the financial burden on state university students.
    More than 20 percent of the Philippines' higher education institutions have increased their tuition or school fees in the past year, data from the Commission on Higher Education showed.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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