Some are asking about ALYANSA's advocacy to include a Staff Regent in its UP Charter campaign. Could you clarify this?

Once more, ALYANSA thanks the individuals who want to clarify the issue of our participation in the UP Charter campaign. The interest generated by this matter proves our commitment to keep our elections at the level of issues. 

To answer the question, let us go back to ALYANSA's commitment to revise the UP Charter. Back in 2003, ALYANSA was the only formation to have taken a definite stand to revise the UP Charter proposals. While we did not see eye to eye with the UP Administration (who wanted to pass the pending bills at the Senate then), and some student groups (who wanted to junk it entirely), ALYANSA took the approach of pushing for progressive provisions by revising the proposed bills.

One such provision is the inclusion of a Staff Regent, consistent with our principle of genuine sectoral representation in our highest policy-making body. With other progressive provisions, ALYANSA pushed for their passage by supporting a counterproposal pushed by its USC leadership back in 2004. The formation, as well as the USC, participated in Technical Working Groups organized for the purpose of passing a new UP Charter bill. Until its signing to law in 2008, ALYANSA was the only formation who participated in the painstaking process of passing the UP Charter, by issuing a definite stand on the matter, as well as initiating efforts to lobby for the passage of its progressive provisions.

In the end, we could say that this is progressive multi-perspective activism at work. Even as we don't necessarily agree with our counterparts, we engage them in substantive debate. Even as we encounter the imperfections of our institutions, we do not just complain --- instead, we forward progressive and reasonable alternatives. 

ALYANSA claims to have advocated revisions for the UP Charter. What are those revisions?

The UP Charter is an important document, being a guide to the University as its most basic set of rules and regulations. As an institution celebrating more than a hundred years of existence, it has recently revised its Charter as a response to changing times. As a case in point, the original UP Charter mentioned the "Governor-General" of the Philippines --- a throwback to American rule, which highlighted its outdated nature.

Way back in 2003, when efforts to change the UP Charter were met by some student groups with knee-jerk condemnation, ALYANSA led the University to a more rational debate even as it differed with the UP Administration on fundamental issues. Instead of immediately calling for the junking of the UP Charter, ALYANSA called for key revisions that would make the Charter pro-student and pro-University. Some of these key revisions are the following:

1. Affirming UP's nature as a National University, which enshrined the government's moral responsibility to maintain UP as an institution;
2. Reducing Malacañang appointees to the Board of Regents (from five, it is down to three), and including a Staff Regent, in order to maximize sectoral participation in the University's decision-making;
3. Allowing the University to productively use its idle assets, subject to conditions that would preserve its integrity as an institution;
4. Enshrining student rights by explicitly stating the requirement for student councils, a General Assembly of student councils system-wide, and the selection of a Student Regent.

These revisions found its way into the 2008 UP Charter, which ALYANSA first championed back in 2003, carried by its ALYANSA-led USC in 2004, and followed up by the formation until its passage in 2008, with ALYANSA leading the USC's helm.

This present UP Charter forms one of ALYANSA's enduring legacies to building UP's institutions, through a painstaking commitment for reform and progressive change. Even as we recognize the imperfections of our institutions, and the fact that we don't see eye to eye with our counterparts, we are committed to upholding substantive debate, realizing the gains that we could achieve in the process.