Students in five campuses in the summer capital and Benguet province staged walk-outs on Tuesday to dramatize their outrage against corruption, 12 days before the Nov. 30 nationwide protests in this year’s Bonifacio Day.
The mass actions, which commenced at noon at the Benguet State University in Benguet capital La Trinidad, uses this year’s International Students Day to voice student sentiments about education budget cuts, local threats to livelihoods like the Public Private Partnership proposal by a mall giant to build a modern Baguio public market and the impending phase out of traditional Baguio jeepneys, said Gabriel Siskar, Kabataan Partylist coordinator for the Cordilleras.
The students also denounced the continuing ‘impunity’ of corrupt officials who remain unpunished even after numerous Congressional inquiries found that officials and some lawmakers allegedly received kickbacks from public works projects that were deliberately padded in budget laws, he said.
The walkouts will continue at 2 p.m. at Saint Louis University, which led the October 7 March against Corruption organized by the Baguio Diocese, and at 3:30 p.m. at the University of the Philippines Baguio, the University of the Cordilleras, and the University of Baguio