Black for Kristel; UP chancellor urged to resign

MANILA, Philippines - Students and faculty wore black and an iconic statue was draped in black as the University of the Philippines observed a day of mourning yesterday for a freshman who killed herself over tuition problems.

UP-Manila chancellor Manuel Agulto broke down, recalling that he himself was once a struggling UP student, as he faced the media, students, and professors who demanded his resignation together with vice chancellor Josephine de Luna following the suicide of UP Manila freshman Kristel Tejada.

The 16-year-old behavioral science student drank silver cleaning solution last Friday at their house in Tondo after she was reportedly forced to take a leave of absence for failing to pay tuition. 

UP president Alfredo Pascual said Agulto is an appointee of the UP Board of Regents while De Luna was appointed by the chancellor and is coterminous with her boss.

“Anybody could resign but I think it would have to be accepted by the appointing authority,” Pascual told The STAR.

He said the two UP Manila officials have three-year terms and they have about one and a half years left in office.

“We’ve been portrayed as cold-hearted and ruthless,” said Agulto after breaking down in the middle of his PowerPoint presentation explaining the events leading to Tejada’s suicide. 

Agulto held the presentation and press conference at the UP Diliman administration building in Quezon City, which was also attended by Pascual.

Pascual said suicide is a complicated phenomenon.  He said if one were to just base the incident on the series of events, it would be easy to say Tejada took her life because of tuition problems.

“The psychology of suicide is too complicated,” he added.

In a statement yesterday, the faculty and staff of UP Manila’s Department of Behavioral Science urged Agulto and De Luna to resign.

“We hold UP Manila Chancellor Manuel B. Agulto and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs Marie Josephine de Luna largely accountable for the deprivation of Kristel’s right to education that cost her life,” they said.

UP Manila faculty members who attended a Mass at the Philippine General Hospital also expressed sadness over the death of Tejada and hit the educational system’s anti-poor policies.

The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) backed yesterday calls for the resignation of the UP Manila officials.

“We support the faculty’s demand for the UP Manila chancellor to be held accountable. However, resignation will not resolve the issue, the Aquino administration must be held accountable for state abandonment on education,” said NUSP deputy secretary-general Sheryl Alapad.

NUSP also pushed for the scrapping of the Socialized Tuition Financial Assistance Program (STFAP), which it said is just another term for tuition increase.

“Kristel is just one of the hundreds and thousands of UP and Filipino students who are pushed against the wall by the high cost of education and the Aquino administration’s abandonment of Philippine education,” Mariz Zubiri, chair of the UP Manila University Student Council (USC), said in a statement.

According to Agulto, the deadline for Tejada to settle her tuition balance was extended three times.

“The fact that Miss Tejada went through the process of getting her clearance, submitting her application and paying her leave of absence fee indicated she wanted her student records in order and signified her intention of enrolling in the next semester,” Agulto said. 

Even the request of Tejada to reclassify her financial standing under the STFAP could have been accommodated if her family presented the documents required under university rules, he said. 

“UP did what they could. Was it enough? Probably not. But we bent over backwards just as her father did,” Agulto said. 

Agulto broke down as he explained he was once a struggling UP student. He said his “outburst of emotions” happened when he was reminded of his hardships as an Iskolar ng Bayan. 

“As administrators, we are not enemies. I’d like to consider myself as a surrogate parent to our students. We want to work with our students because we were once like them,” he added. 

He said his meeting with Tejada’s mother Blesilda had been used by others to criticize the UP administration, claiming the mother knelt before him,  begging him to reconsider, something that the mother has also denied. Agulto said he met Tejada’s mother but she did not kneel down during their talk. 

As calls were made for him to resign, Agulto said he was willing to step down if anyone could prove he did nothing to help Tejada. 

“You can’t say that we did nothing. I will resign if it is proven that I was responsible for Kristel’s death,” he said.

While Agulto was holding the press conference, students staged a protest rally outside the administration building at Quezon Hall. 

The protesters draped the Oblation statue in front of Quezon Hall with a black cloth. 

Libertine Labor, director of UP Manila Office of Student Affairs, said that Tejada had sought consultation with a counsellor twice during her short stint at the university. She also talked regularly with her adviser at the Behavioral Science Department.

Labor revealed that while Tejada had talked about financial problems, there were also other issues she had raised. 

She said the student had mentioned family problems and some matters related to social dealings.

The students also called on their peers to honor the death of Tejada by finishing their studies and fighting for a more democratic, accessible and quality education for all.

Protesting students also tied black ribbons around the UP Manila campus and painted a mural to signify their indignation for the death of Tejada.

The protesters also displayed a black tarpaulin with the words “Katarungan para sa Iskolar ng Bayan at kabataan.”

“While we call for greater state subsidy for education, we also call on the premier national university to intensively review its policies,” Akbayan Youth National spokesperson JC Tejano said. 

The students also urged the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to put more teeth on the implementation of its memorandum imposing sanctions on schools with repressive policies such as “no tuition, no exam policy.”

Tony Leachon, director of the UP Manila Information, Publications and Public Affairs, said although the UP community is saddened by the incident, no amount of explanation could compensate for the loss of a loved one.

“It’s a tough balancing act – compassion for Kristel and working for a bureaucratic system with transformational leaders passionate about changes and yet come out short due to things beyond their control. Too late the hero,” Leachon said in a text message to The STAR.   With Rey Galupo, Reinir Padua, Jose Rodel Clapano, Paolo Romero, Eva Visperas