Miss ‘Modelo’:

Tracy

Kim Modelo as the epitome of activism toward a rainbow tomorrow

Throughout the long history of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), its sacred mission to provide inclusive and equitable quality education remained inadequate. However, with it’s students’ progressiveness comes the system’s backwardness.

With the administration’s lack of efforts in implementing safe space policies, it is up to people like Miss Kim Modelo, the Secretary-General of the PUP Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral (SKM) and the PUP Student Council Assembly (SCA) and a staunch advocate of equality, to steer the university on the right track through its historical ways of fighting: militancy.

“Yung pagtake ng space ng transwomen, particularly sa leadership sa student body ay isang malaking milestone para sa pagfoforward nung laban natin hindi lamang for transwomen, kung hindi sa buong sangkabaklaan, sa buong komunidad ng LGBTQIA+ community, at para sa pag forward ng panawagan ng safe space para sa komunidad ng PUP.

“Ang safe space [kasi] hindi siya maingay na usapin sa PUP. Hindi visible ang safe space. Kulang,” stressed Modelo, emphasizing the importance of the Safe Space Act within the university.

According to Modelo, the meted punishment for sexual harassment in the student handbook is vague and only predicated according to CSC Resolution No. 01-0940. She also added that the resolution is inaccessible, keeping the students in the dark as to what happens to harassers.

Due to these issues, Modelo feared how the lack of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression (SOGIE) policy within the university tolerates the abuse that happens within classrooms, and so, together with other student leaders, she becomes the model of a more-inclusive safe space for all.

As a student leader, she believes that the fight for gender equality and safe spaces should not be limited through policies within the student handbook. She promotes amplifying the need to uphold the militant traditions of the Iskolar ng Bayans.

“As student leaders, we are here to amplify the voices of the masses. Kinikilala natin na may boses ang masa, at ang trabaho natin ay pa-ingayin iyon tungo sa mas mataas na porma ng pakikibaka.

The past spoke for itself and the present upholds the struggle, what’s next is a model of militant action to dare ensure a rainbow tomorrow.