A member of the Makabayan bloc on Friday denounced the “crass subscription to commercialization” of the University of the Philippines after the inauguration of the UP’s new building named after a Chinese-Filipino tycoon.
UP’s Henry Sy Sr. Hall is built in the business district of Bonifacio Global City.
“The naming of UP after Henry Sy does not sit well with Bayan Muna and other progressives because naming a building of the country’s premier state university after a working-class nemesis embodies the government’s determination to abandon education and commercialize our education system,” Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate said.
“It appears profoundly symbolic that UP—that has brewed the minds of many a progressive, militant, and revolutionary—would have an edifice named after a taipan that propagated the bane of workers, contractualization,” Zarate added.
Zarate challenged the state-run university to reveal all its deals with Sy for the new UP building aside from its name.
“Throughout the past decade we have witnessed how commercialization is taking over UP. From the UP-Ayalaland Technohub deal in 2006, GT-Toyota Asian Cultural Center in 2009, to the Virata School of Business and UP Town Center in 2013, we are seeing dispossession of UP property to private enterprises. This is a clear move of the Aquino administration to remove state subsidy on education,” Zarate pointed out.
He said the commercialization of UP would give a whole to UP university hymn, “UP Naming Mahal.”
“Making education a profit-making scheme does not augur well for our country. Aside from making tuition sky-high and exclusive to those who can afford it, the type of education and culture that UP fosters may be further damaged by the deals made by the UP administration to these businesses. We hope that UP will not replace its motto of “serve the people” with the hollow SM mantra, “Happy to Serve,” the militant lawmaker said.
Zarate enjoined the UP community to resist the intrusion of capitalist interests in the university.
“UP has a rich history in resisting intrusion of business interests and tyranny exemplified during the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune. Bayan Muna enjoins Its faculty, students, and staff to defy the tentacles of neo-liberal dictates of privatization and commercialization. Already, the UP administration is bearing down on its faculty and employees by contractualization,” Zarate pointed out.
“We cannot let UP–which shapes some of the most brilliant minds in our nation–to be gobbled up by commercialization,” he added.