Over 800 students, teachers and workers of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) participated in the “First Day Rage,” a mass mobilization held on the first day of the semester on January 27. Students and staff highlighted university issues, mainly regarding budget cuts, security threats, academic freedom, but also included call to impeach Sara (Duterte).

The University of the Philippines’s budget was cut by ₱2.08 billion for 2025. This is the biggest cut on UP System funding for the past nine years. This cut proves the current US-Marcos regime’s misprioritization of funds. The bulk of the 2025 budget was earmarked for infrastructure projects. The budget for counterinsurgency and “confidential funds” also swelled.

It can be remembered that the House of Representatives’ investigations in the Office of the Vice President Sara revealed her anomalous use of ₱125 million of public funds (as confidential funds) in 2024. House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro said this deception and anomalous embezzlement of the public treasury is the basis for impeachment.

The program included the call against corruption and the immediate ouster of Sara Duterte, the imprisonment of her father, Rodrigo Duterte, and for holding the US-Marcos regime accountable.

Campus issues

Due to the lack of budget for basic agencies, particularly in education, funds earmarked for students and teachers are tightened. The UPLB protest action also highlighted the issue of the anti-student policies in the College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM).

According to the CVM Student Council, the students’ major problem is with “block sectioning” and “advanced registration” which allegedly aims to provide students predetermined and permanent slots. According to the council, this greatly undermines the registration of irregular students who also make up a large part of the college’s population. Currently, 44.82% of students in said college are “underloaded” or enrolled with insufficient units. Students also bear the burden of purchasing laboratory manuals and equipment needed for their education.

Apart from the problem with enrollment, UPLB students also face widespread threats to academic freedom. Recently, the UPLB community denounced the memo sent by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs (OVCCA) and Security Safe Office (SSO) to the University Student Council (USC), requiring permission and advance notice from students for protests within the university. Student organizations and alliances and university faculty strongly opposed the said memo.

According to the All UP Academic Employees Union (AUPAEU) UPLB, “the OVCCA-SSO letter obviously criticizes and mentions only protests and mobilization actions.” The AUPAEU UPLB also asserted that “the University constituents see the memo as a major violation of press freedom and freedom of assembly” and “a clear violation of UPLB Safe Haven Resolution.”

According to the University Student Council (USC), it is the UPLB’s “duty to uphold the democratic rights of its constituents and serve as a bastion of freedom, and not a proponent of repression.”

In this regard, the students are still protesting the UPLB administration for the slow progress of the Safe Haven Resolution which aims to ensure the security of the university, academic freedom, and the right to free association of its constituents.

(Report from Kalayaan-South Tagalog, KM newspaper)