NERI - Catch me if you CAN!

I just got this from Inquirer's website. Hahaha. =)). Too bad I didn't experience this kind of rally. Also, I haven't watched this on TV PATROL WORLD. Crap.

Irate students call Neri a coward

DORA - left! WEEEHOH! and here's ate pingpong (classmate ko siya sa table tennis, and I forgot her name. Sorry ate! =|)

February 29, 2008
Updated 18:48:59 (Mla time)
Jeffrey M. Tupas
Mindanao Bureau

DAVAO CITY, Philippines--After agreeing to face the protesting students of the University of the Philippines-Mindanao, Commission on Higher Education chair Romulo Neri backed off from the meeting by running away through the school's main building, only to be chased by students who were shouting "Speak up! Speak up!" and "Duwag (coward)! Duwag! Duwag!"

For four hours Friday morning, the students waited for Neri outside the UP-Mindanao's administration building where they waved streamers and placards and chanted calls for the CHEd chairman to listen to their woes and complaints on the high cost of education and for him to tell the truth behind the controversial NBN-ZTE deal.

Their placards clearly manifested their desire to speak to Neri, although some attacked him in tongue-in-cheek fashion, for instance, "Ang tunay na maginoo, nagsasabi ng totoo (A real gentleman tells the truth)" and "Ang tunay na gentleman, hindi kampi sa kawatan (A real gentleman does not side with thieves)."

Shahana Abdulwahid, chair of the UP-Diliman Student Council and member of the board as representative of the students, was the one who convinced Neri to go out and talk to the protesters. Neri heads the UP Board of Regents.

Abdulwahid said Neri agreed to go out after the board meeting. But the meeting ended at past 11 a.m., almost an hour later, and Neri was still holed up inside the administration building with the other members of the regents.

At past noon, the protesters, a number of them belonging to the youth groups League of Filipino Students and Anakbayan, who positioned themselves in front of the building, were agitated upon learning that Neri was slipping out through the back door. A brief chase happened between Neri, who was tightly accompanied by his security escorts, and the angry students who were shouting "Speak up! Speak up!" and "Duwag! Duwag! Duwag!"

Frustrated, the students continued their demonstration a few more minutes, assailing the "coverup between the UP administration and Neri."

The students also called for Neri’s resignation as head of the board of regents as they called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to immediately vacate the Malacañang.

"This government is really living up to its reputation of being an experienced cheat as we have seen how a government official, who owes the people a lot, once again cheated on us. He said he will face and talk to us and yet what? Turning his back on us is an ultimate act of cowardice," said UP-Mindanao student council president Makpil Zarrin Dem Camacho.

Camacho said what Neri did is reflective of the government's penchant to trick the people.

"This government, with all its morality-deficiency and a history of stealing and corrupting peoples' money, can never be trusted by the youth and the entire Filipino people. This is the kind of government whose sincerity to deliver the basic services to the people can never be trusted," Camacho said.

Tiara Mejos, editor-in-chief of UP-Mindanao's Himati, said it was obvious that the people surrounding Neri stopped him from facing the protesters. She said one of the security aides of Neri, she said, accidentally "elbowed" her as she was one of the first few who ran after the fleeing Neri.

"I felt sad about it because UP is supposed to have the reputation of promoting social justice but right now, it has succumbed to something deplorable such as this," Mejos said.

UP professor Reine Katryn Taya, (WEEE !! :]]) who witnessed the chase between Neri and the students, said she felt sorry for the students and enraged at the sight of a top government official "who totally lost his remaining honesty by surrendering to cowardice."

"He evaded the encounter and this deprived the public, the students, of the truth. What we have just witnessed was again an offspring of the lies that he had himself caught in between. Why run away?" Taya said.

The Social Sciences professor said it was a shame seeing a government official being chased by the students who only demanded explanation and the truth.

"What is he so afraid of? These students are so few for him to be intimidated by them …what he did was really not fair, infuriating, and at the same time, ridiculous," Taya said.

Abdulwahid, on the other hand, blamed the security detail of Neri for the incident. While Neri was willing to face the student, she said, the security aides barred him and instead escorted him to the vehicles waiting for him to be ferried back to the airport.

"From what I know, Neri really wanted to speak to the students but his security details told him not to," Abdulwahid said.

Here are some highlights during the February 29 rally in UP MINDANAO: (Special thanks to Monzer Abpi and Geva Jayson.):

BEST FRIENDS IN REAL LIFE? Doubt it..

Chipmunk with the Bio pipz (Lyle, Kuya Modda and Ate Monique)

GO GO GO mga iskolar ng BAYAN! HABULIN NIYO SI NERI! :))

Okay NEIL. So kailangan pa mag pose during the rally?! PEACE! :D