Robbery raps filed vs 5 PUP students in Wednesday's rally

Complaints have been filed against five Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) students who led an indignation rally last Wednesday afternoon to protest the state university’s planned tuition increase next school year. Named respondents in the case were Ferrin Louise Umagat, 19; Cheysser Soriano, 19; Judy Anne Fabito, 19; Piem Canela, 18; and Abriel Mansilungan, 20. They were arrested right after the rally. Chief Inspector Marcelo Reyes, head of the Manila Police District-GAS section, said the five were slapped with robbery with intimidation and violence complaint after they took away several school properties during the rally.

Based on the complaint that relied on information from PUP security chief Leonardo Coquilla, the five allegedly took out 13 desks and board them onto two passenger jeeps bearing the license plates TWU753 and TVY797 without consent from university officials. The students were protesting the 1,700-percent increase the university is set to implement next school year. The two vehicles, which were carrying the school properties and the five militant leaders, were flagged down by joint elements of the MPD-Station 5 policemen and PUP security guards upon reaching a police outpost along Valenzuela Street in Sta. Mesa, Manila. Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Emmanuel Angeles, who is also the head of the PUP Board of Regents, had earlier vowed that he would vote against the proposed tuition increase. Soriano, who is the president of the PUP Student Council and PUP chairperson of militant group Anakbayan, said their arrest was allegedly made to harass the students who were not in favor of the tuition increase. “We are confident that they will withdraw the charges they filed against us. They know that we are getting sympathies from different sectors and I know that they know they are just humiliating themselves," said Soriano. - KBK, GMANews.TV