As the chairperson of UPLB’s Youth Advocates for Peace with Justice, Garcia is no stranger to the state’s attacks: whether being red-tagged himself after human rights organizations in the Southern Tagalog Region exposed the state’s planned bombings or asserting the Bigkisan Caravan’s right to assert the region’s demands, Garcia has been, as his vision paper suggests, “unfazed in the line of fire.”
Garcia’s vision of the University’s future as student regent is anchored on what he sees as a crucial role for the university: as a “haven and catalyst for attaining a just and lasting peace.” He said that amidst the crisis currently faced by the university and the broader masses, UP must actively assert our rights and liberties.
His general plans of action consist of proposals that aim to contribute to the protection of the University’s democracy and welfare of its constituents; such as a campaign for sufficient fund allocation, strengthened opposition to budget cuts, the ensured institutionalization of the Safe Haven Resolution, and the continued condemnation of Mandatory ROTC. As a human rights defender, Garcia gave particular importance to defending the university as a whole – not just students, but faculty, REPS, workers, residents, indigenous groups, vendors, and other stakeholders across the system as well.
To amplify the demands of the student body for genuine student representation, Garcia promises to strengthen the OSR as the leading student institution to coordinate with and establish effective unities that stand for progressive administrations as well as pro-people, with an agenda to craft a system-wide list of general student demands–to ensure that all student needs are heard for proper rectification and remedy that leads to solution.
Garcia says that with attacks against the youth on the unit, system, and national levels, the Office of the Student Regent must remain unfazed as well, keeping the university a safe haven for all that it stands for. Only then, says Garcia, can UP fulfill its role in the pursuit of a just and lasting peace.
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