It’s a mad scramble to enter University of the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — It looked like a mad scramble for survival in a Hollywood doomsday movie.

In a race against time, thousands of students and their parents trooped to the University of the Philippines’ Diliman campus in Quezon City yesterday morning to file their applications for a slot in the UP College Admission Test (UPCAT).

The UP Diliman police estimated the crowd at 10,000.

Yesterday was the deadline for filing of UPCAT applications for private schools in Metro Manila, which coincided with the registration period of students at the Diliman campus. It was already an extension as it was initially scheduled last July 27.

Photos and video clips of people getting and submitting application forms, which were posted on social media and aired on newscast, showed some students fainted while waiting in line, perhaps due to the return of the heat after weeks of incessant rains.

To ensure they would hand in the requirements on time, some applicants said they fell in line as early as Sunday.

Citizen journalist Selena Alzate, who sent photos and a video clip to GMA News TV, said there was no system in attending to applicants at the Office of the University Registrar where she was, causing confusion and a bit of commotion in the area.

Others complained of applicants jumping or cutting into lines.

And as if the extension was not enough, the applicants screamed, “Extension! Extension! Extension!” before university officials.

“Hindi naman dapat magkaroon ng ganitong crowds sa registrar sapagkat noon pa namin inaanunsyo na puwede namang i-submit ’yung mga forms through courier (These crowds should not have been there because we’ve been announcing since before the deadline that forms can be submitted through courier),” UP vice president for public affairs Jose Dalisay Jr. told Super Radyo dzBB.

Dalisay said they expect 167,000 applicants this year, up from 103,000 last year.

UP is one of 112 state universities and colleges covered by the enactment of Republic Act 10931 – the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act – or the free higher education law approved and signed by President Duterte in August last year.

For public high school students, the deadline is on Friday, Aug. 3, which coincides with the start of classes for the first semester of academic year 2018-2019, according to UP Diliman’s official academic calendar.

Students from provincial schools have until Aug. 10. to submit their applications while those from foreign schools may do so between yesterday and Aug. 10.

Applications received after that date may only be processed if test permits are still available, according to the university.