my first serious school issue***

October 24, 2008
12:53 PM


“It is better to have a war for justice than peace in injustice”
-Charles Pierre Péguy (1873 - 1914)
French writer and poet, Basic Verities, "The Rights of Man"


I wonder why of all the listed quotations about justice in Microsoft Encarta finally I chose this one. Maybe there is something in it that is related to what happened to me or what I did last week before going home. I still do not know the final outcome on my sort-of-tiny-revolt but I am rest assured that it will be alright for now. I delivered my side already; my judgment of what I think is fair enough and just. If I will still be condemned together with my friend who was also brave enough to fight for one of the injustices that is happening in a Philippine university, then maybe, our reasons were not enough to justify accordingly to what we are trying to point out. As what 18th century British judge William Murray Mansfield said to a colonial governor ignorant in the law, “Consider what you think justice requires, and decide accordingly. But never give your reasons; for your judgment will probably be right, but your reasons will certainly be wrong.” Or maybe, we are again victims of every bullshit school system in the Philippines. Heck. But still, I don’t want to really squeeze this matter until I will lose my breath and die a martyr. So maybe I need to lie low. But still it bothers me. Yeah right, it is just a tip of a finger nail when compared to big issues of injustices our society has now but still it falls under the category. Every small thing has a right to be heard, ayt?


Now it comes to the point of where did all this start? Ok… during the dawn of the finals week, of course, we are too much pre-occupied on lots of things: studies, subjects to catch up before failing, and presentations equivalent to one final exam. No way can we also exclude the fact that we dreamed beyond the pigments of our imagination of enjoying a little breather and going home for the semester break. Behind the nausea of studying over hundred-page reviewers for the finals, we still get to have reveries on miles away fantasy called home. And an injustice such as this situation that I’ll raise right now just gets our cranial nerves to pop out all the motor neurons and sensory neurons we have. It intervenes our hypothalamus to exert emotional impulses of excitement and fun. Anyways, so it all started with this buzz about students endangering their grades in our NSTP-CWTS (National Service Training Program-Civil Welfare Training Service, it’s a very redundant name, I know) because they lack number of hours (a total of 54 hours). Since I don’t have any late nor absences for that matter, I’m confident enough that I don’t need to start boguing myself on sacrificing my thrill of going home by attending make-up classes after the finals. Boo! I’m clean therefore I don’t have to mind it. Besides, I asked our Student Assistant a.k.a our Team Manager regarding our status since other team managers are very generous enough to inform their respective teams, and she told us that if you don’t have any problems at all, why worry? Oh well, what a nice move from our SA. And I’ve thought that she really was a fallen guardian angel of our team.


Sad to say, she’s not like that really. Or maybe the kingdom of injustice really wanted to kill me that in the morning of the last day of my finals week, I received or shall I say I did the first move to ask my team leader about our status in the CWTS wherein there he showed me a text message from our SA last night about the list of names of those who lack hours and must complete it by attending the make-up class sessions. I was a little worried back then because I have this enigmatic sensation that there must be something wrong on the way they compute the number of hours rendered by the almost 250 NSTP-CWTS students. Besides that, I heard rumors that some other members of the other teams, who swore that they are in complete attendance, found out that they are incomplete after all. And so goes that maybe I can be one of the poor victims.


And by fate as bestowed by heavens and the stars, my worst fear is right. I’m on the list. My friend who swore to God that she did not do something bad also succumbed the same curse. What the f**k! But I did not just jump out to a conclusion. Because maybe, there is just something wrong. But upon looking on some evidences, like our other team members who admit that they have a late and an absent were even not on the list, I smelled something fishy on this. Even if our fellow team leader somehow forgot to pass one attendance sheet that caused a minus in our number of hours, it still does not fit at all. Just consider the comparison between our other two members who are spared though guilty and my friend and I who are innocent enough but were sentenced. Now I feel how it is to be betrayed. I am like in the shoes of those convicted persons who by God’s divine wisdom our innocent but are victimized by the unjust rule of the society. But my situation is not that so melodramatic like theirs of course. I am just showing some hyperbole. :-]


So I need to fix this by first consulting to the in-charge. Although my math final exam was ruined but thanks heaven it was so damn easy, I manage to circumnavigate the university just to find them but where the hell are they? The NSTP-CWTS office was closed as it lived by its nature like that. The adviser was not around as expected. And so, my friend who also has the same sense of hunger for what happened and I were left exhausted. We have both decided since last weekend to go home tomorrow. We don’t have enough time to attend those make-up classes with which oh my, is very heavy and stressful. And we fear that if we will not attend, our status will be the same and we will have a failure on this subject whatsoever. If that’s the case, since this is a mandatory training to all freshmen Filipinos, if we fail this, we need to take it up next year, in our second year in college together with those next school year’s newbie’s. Damn it!


Like what the quote conveys, it’s better to have a war for justice than have peace in injustice. Unlike the others, I don’t want to just accept the thought of attending the make-up classes as a punishment for being a late comer and an absent-minded and literally absent moron. I’m not like that. I don’t have the right to be punished. I did not do anything wrong. Is there something that I should be punished about? Another point is: so, it means that in order to pass the first semester in this subject you need to get a perfect attendance? What is this? A military camp? I am just grateful that there is also a person other than me who feels the same way. Actually many of us were victimized by this flaw but only my friend and I retaliated. We are not contented to be just silent babies who obey their nanny to stop crying even though it is the need of their system to cry. We are not contented to just accept the punishment well in fact we know it is unjust. For Christ’s sake our university is a bastion of democracy so why hush? This whole thing just bothered me for the whole last day before sem ends.


Since the adviser or any in-charge is nowhere to be found we need to do something. So the night before the start of the make-up classes and the night before I will go home, I texted my friend that we will meet tomorrow, go to the office if it is open, tell the adviser or any SA in-charge about our concern and whatsoever will be the outcome, go home safe and sound. And here came the morning. I was carrying my “heavy bags” as I waited for my friend. But she was not there yet. Something’s wrong. Maybe, as her great alibi, she was not able to receive my text message the other night. So I texted her again and again and went to the office again and again but still its undisputed nature’s the same---still no attendant to be found. I grew impatient and created thoughts of the noble what-if’s. My mind was divided into my two alter egos who are arguing of what should be done. Well, I must really be crazy. What if I will just attend the make-up class half-day and just rush home in the afternoon? No, because I already made up my mind and I should try first the plan before making up with the decision, right? There’s no harm in trying. No, what if I just swallow up my pride and obey the rule? No! This is not just about pride it is about principles. You know it’s wrong, it’s absurd and it’s unjust. You are old enough to speak and fight for it. What if I will just go home now, sleep this shit and consider it as one of my worst nightmares? No! It is your grades dummy! So slap your face back to reality because you cannot go home without fixing this first!


STOP! I had enough. Since my friend is sort of not replying so maybe I should deal with this in my own way. Luckily, I have a mobile number of our dearest adviser so I will just text him regarding our concern. Shoot. I should have thought about it earlier! And it’s 5 pages, meaning I sent him 5 long text messages. Just so beautiful! I did it in my utmost respectful manner. I just wished that my leader gave me our adviser’s real number or else I will kill him. With that I think I’ve done my part so I texted my friend that I will just go home because I’m tired of waiting and if she will do something else, I begged her to inform me. And after a billion of dull moments I had waiting, she replied. And guess what? She really was not able to receive my message (yeah right!). She told me that I should go now because she will go to the office to fix the problem. That time I was already riding on a vehicle going to Iloilo City. She promised me that she will try her best to follow up our concern since I told her that I have informed our adviser already. “We did not do anything wrong so it is our right not to attend the make-up class,” she said. Good luck!


I was on the departure area in the sea port when I received her message. And am I just lucky or was it just divine intervention that happened? I nearly cried when I read her text message. It says that I must not worry anymore because everything was just a mistake. She met with the one who is in-charge with all those encoding thing and they both re-checked her number of hours and mine as well. It turned out that there was just a big mess while encoding it and there was just a confusion going on with the recording stuff. She assured me that everything was fine now and that I don’t need anymore to have make-up classes. Wheeww… I was like a winner of a trip to Europe for six when I found out about it. It’s as if a huge nebula was extracted from my chest that all I did was thank everything and everyone about it. I know since then that what I’m doing was just fine and I know that even in our own little way we can achieve justice. All I can do was just laugh and smile as I remembered all the things I have done yesterday and today. And how can I be more thankful to my friend and to God for being there to help me aim for the truth. As what my favorite daily newspaper’s trademark always says, THE TRUTH SHALL PREVAIL and, will always be.


Now, all I need to do is check in our university’s online registration my grades for the first semester. I hope that the small magic of justice I’ve experienced will live up to its action and expectation until the end. I am not anymore crazy. I am not anymore angry and delusional. And I now only have one ego and it’s my freaking possessed die-hard justice rocker ME. ‘- )