HOURS before President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his 5th State of the Nation Address at the Batasan Pambansa building in Quezon City, hundreds of militant students from various colleges and universities joined the #SONAgkaisa protest rally at the University of the Philippines, Diliman campus to push for their own issues: Academic freeze and ‘refund, reduce, reject of tuition fees.’

The student marchers shared anti-government slogans with the multi-sectoral crowd at the UP campus rally which put to test an earlier ‘arrest warning’ from the office of QC Mayor Joy Belmonte for violators of the IATF health protocol which bans mass gathering ang non-wearing of face masks.

In an interview with The POST correspondents, they also shared their grievances on the manner that the Duterte administration is handling the education issue during this Covid19 pandemic.

Floro Dumbat, a student from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, said measures for academic freeze will ease the economic burden of parents who are sending their children to school, especially at this time with the country’s economy badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Paano makakapag-aral ang mga estudyante kung kumakalam ang sikmura, kung ang mga magulang ay hindi na alam kung saan hahanapin ang mga pangkain sa kanilang mga pamilya.” Dumbat said.

Stef Melendres of Miriam College, however, suggested that instead of academic freeze, the government should opt to prioritize mass testing and the safe opening of classes.

“Maaaring maraming estudyante ang magtrabaho na lang at hindi na bumalik sa pag-aaral,” said Melendres, noting that academic freeze could likely stifle the learning of the students.

Earlier, campus journalists urged the consideration of academic freeze for the school year 2020-2021.

“The Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education, in cooperation with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid19 should review the proposed school opening in August and consider doing an academic freeze for this year,” said Beverly Shane Bautista.

On the other hand, Mark Lester Andrie Cruzet said,”Malabo man pero sana naman sa SONA ng Pangulo, bigla niya na lang ianunsiyo na pansamantala niya munang ihihinto ang pagbubukas ng klase.”