The League of Filipino Students UPLB sympathizes with the families, friends, and relatives of Ray Bernard Peñaranda, Rochel ‘Cesil’ Geronda, Given Grace Cebanico, and Wilbert de Ocampo – victims of crime and murder in Los Baños. We are one in calling for justice for them and for all other victims of like crime and human rights violations.

With the death of Given Grace, the local government tightened up security in Los Baños; increased police visibility, installed CCTV cameras, set up lamp posts, etc. However, with the recent murders of Peñaranda and Geronda, these actions done by the local government have been greatly criticized by the citizens of Los Baños.

The League of Filipino Students UPLB is one in calling for a peaceful Los Baños community but we strongly argue that increasing the number of police, lamp posts, surveillance cameras and the like will not fully resolve the increasing crime rate – or even unrest – in Los Baños.
We call for substantial solutions – prioritizing basic social services among others – that will really elevate the citizens from the worsening crisis that our country experiences and prevent them from committing crimes.

PROCLAIM ANTE NOW!

The issue of the University Student Council (USC) chairpersonship – a pressing issue among Iskolar ng Bayan as the question whether it will be Ynik Ante (SAKBAYAN) or Marion Joyce Divino (Buklod) who will serve as chairperson becomes a prevalent subject of conversation in the campus.

Automated election results show that Ante (with 1479 votes, 36 votes more than Divino) is the clear winner for this year’s USC-CSC elections. However, during the February 29 Central Electoral Board (CEB) meeting, the CEB – the supposed body only mandated to formulate the election code and proclaim the winners of the elections – erroneously decided to proclaim Divino as the chairperson for the lame reason of Ante’s late tuition payment, that she is not a bona fide student of the university; the body argued that Ante did not follow the agreements stated in her promissory note signed by the Vice Chancellor for Instruction. Yet, Ante was able to pay on the same day (February 29) as the deadline stated on her promissory note. Chancellor Cruz also attested that there should not be a problem of being a bona fide student on the basis of financial incapacity or problems.

We condemn this act of the CEB and their initial act to try to disqualify Ante of her candidacy during the start of the USC-CSC elections.

We, the League of Filipino Students UPLB along with all Iskolar ng Bayan who believe in and uphold the integrity of the students’ elections call on the CEB to reconvene as soon as possible and proclaim Ynik Ante as the real USC chairperson-elect. We also call for Ms. Divino to voluntarily concede and respect the decision of the electorate – that the electorate chose Ante as our USC chairperson.