Agencies/Manila

University of the Philippines (UP) students and faculty members posted their school identification cards beside a poster-size copy of UP Manila student Kristel Tejada’s ID card as they launched an alliance to seek justice for Tejada, who committed suicide last week after failing to pay her tuition fees.
At a press conference, the organisers of the Justice for Kristel Alliance said the ID protest symbolises the plight of Tejada, a 16-year-old freshman behavioural science student, who was forced to surrender her ID card after she went on leave of absence.
The alliance will hold various activities that will culminate in a vigil today, the eve of Tejada’s burial. They blamed the UP administration and Malacanang for Tejada’s suicide on March 15.
Student regent Cleve Arguelles said the government’s policy of pushing state universities to be self-sufficient served as a death sentence for Tejada.
“Instead of resorting to victim-blaming, the UP administration should take steps to ensure that we are not hindering qualified and intelligent students from receiving quality education,” said professor Ramon Guillermo of the Concerned Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy.
UP Diliman vice-chancellor for student affairs, Marion Tan, said the incident was not the problem of just Tejada’s family but also of other poor UP students. Professor Danilo Arao said the alliance was calling for the scrapping of the Student Tuition and Financial Assistant Programme (STFAP) and campaigning for full state subsidy for UP.
“The review is within the framework of how to make it work,” Arao said.