February 6, 2014- They stomped their feet, twisted their bodies, and raised their pointfinger up to the sky, giving a message of one voice rising for justice. Hundreds of young women and men gathered in a morning of cultural performances to demand for all victims of economic, political, and social injustices. Organized by the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR), Gabriela – Youth, and the University Center for Culture and the Arts (UCCA), the campaign called Move to Mobilize Against Social Injustices or Move to Mob aimed to raise the awareness of young women and men on the issues of violence against women and other social injustices like the commercialization of education.

“State abandonment of education is a form of injustice to the youth. This is very apparent with the meager budget allocated for state universities and colleges (SUC) like PUP. The P34.7-billion allocation for SUCs is very far from the original P60-billion proposed budget of 110 state schools,” said Kamil Manangan, GABRIELA-Youth spokesperson.

PUP will suffer P10.1 million-cut in the personnel service component or the fund for salaries and benefits of employees. It is also among the 64 SUCs which will not receive a single peso for capital outlay or budget for construction of new facilities and equipments. Even SUCs in the Yolanda-stricken regions that suffered massive damages in infrastructure do not have even a single cent for capital outlay (CO). This includes UP Tacloban which was totally wrecked by the super typhoon.

“We call on the students to join us in our call against commecialization in education. Continued state abandonment on education sector makes us students, especially young women vulnerable to violence. During enrolment season, some young women are forced to enter prostitution to pay for their tuition,” she added.

Mary Joan Guan, CWR’s executive director explained that the increase in the Philippine economy of more than 7% did not trickle down to the majority of the people. “The 50 richest persons in the country, which is only 2% of our population, get richer. The poorer the nation gets, the more violence its women and children experience. So, every hour there is a woman or child being raped or beaten.“ she said. Move to Mob campaign served as a build up activity for the One Billion Rising campaign that will culminate on February 14 and for the International Women’s Day on March 8.

International stage actor Ms. Monique Wilson, who is the global director of One Billion Rising (OBR) for Justice, talked about the innovative approach of getting the message across through OBR, which was joined by 207 countries last year. She invited the students to join the February 14 culminating activity. The event was the second in a series of Move to Mob activities. The first was held at UP Manila last February 4, with the third one scheduled on February 12 at the University of the Philippines in Los Baños. Aside from the flash mobs, other activities like foras, film showing, and educational discussions will continue towards March 8. ###

For reference, contact: Cham Perez, (02) 411-2796