Hermie Laroa, the vice president of the UP Shopping Center Stallholders Association Inc. (UPSCSAI) and owner of a copy center, has faced two fires in UP Diliman that threatened his livelihood. One was in the 1960s at the site of the Little Quiapo marketplace, now the location of Kalayaan Residence Hall, and another in 2018 at the UP Shopping Center.
On Tuesday, Laroa, along with multisectoral formations in UPD, took it upon themselves to contest the latest threat to their livelihood–the commercialization of campus land–and launched the UP Not for Sale Network at the former location of their businesses.
Six years have passed since the UP Shopping Center went up in flames. The establishment right across Area 2 in UP Diliman (UPD) housed several maninindas, from copy centers to food stalls. Its reconstruction is supposed to put maninindas at ease, but the private corporation takeover is feared to wipe them off campus.
“Dati, during thesis time, inuumaga kami kasi sabay-sabay nagpapagawa ang mga estudyante,” he said. “Syempre, gusto mo i-cater yung mga pangangailangan ng mga estudyante kaya io-overtime namin para on-time sila sa submission.”
But it will be hard for Laroa and other maninindas to continue this type of service once the new shopping center—now called DiliMall—is in operation with a third-party private manager in the helm of the establishment.
Under the UP Master Development Plan (MDP) and privatization crusades in the government, the university’s administration is encouraged to enter into business ventures in order to increase financial resources besides government endowment. Prominent instances include the UP TechnoHub and the conversion of the former location of UP Integrated School into UP Town Center, both with Ayala corporations.
The UP Not For Sale Network is formed to oppose these ventures. Their rank is composed of the UPSCSAI, University Student Council, All UP Workers’ Alliance, and the Samahan ng mga Manininda sa UP, among others.
Since the Duterte administration, there has been a trend of less financial support for UP from the national government. This year, the university received a total of P24.8 billion in funding. The figure, while reversed an earlier budget cut, is still P16 billion short of the original request to support operations.
Without a sufficient budget, the university administration became geared to commercialize assets such as land areas as a means of income. But MDP will only hurt both manininda and the community.
Laroa explained that the future of vending on campus will be under a concession system. Through this, maninindas will have to pay a standard rent rate and give up seven percent of their gross sales to the third party handling DiliMall.
“Sila na lang ang pinag-trabahuhan namin,” he said. “Paano ang serbisyo? Magtataas kami ng presyo ngayon. Kaso talo pa rin kami, kasi kung mataas ang presyo, tataas ang kita nila. Walang panalo dito ang manininda at estudyante, kundi ang nagpapaupa.”
Traffic inside and along major roads around UPD has been a concern lately. With commercial establishments like DiliMall, this is only expected to worsen with the influx of cars entering the campus to visit and shop.
Without enough endowment, UP is skewed towards commercializing lands. But such ventures, ultimately, will hurt the community by increasing prices, heightening traffic and security concerns, and losing the public character of the university.
“Ang purpose ng building na ito ay serbisyuhan ang mga estudyante, hindi taasan ang presyo,” Laroa said. “Kailangang unahin ang needs ng mga estudyante—barbershop, copy center, bookbinding. Yun lang naman ang needs, hindi naman kailangang i-commercialize.” ●
