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From the onset, the progressive studentry sees no more reason for Duterte and his terrorist military junta to stay in power.

While the Department of National Defense (DND) supposedly conducted a “rigorous study” to render the UP-DND accord reinstatement unnecessary, there is no more doubt on what five years under an oppressive and corrupt regime has brought to the youth and the Filipino people: killings, repression, and poverty.

As they cannot present legitimate facts to back their claim that the University of the Philippines (UP) is a “haven for terrorist recruitment,” the whole country (not just the university) is witness to the utter negligence, misplaced priorities, and bloody war on the people that the Duterte administration and its killing machinery have pursued at the expense of scientific pandemic measures and substantial aid that the people need.

Instead of providing the sorely needed funds for the national social amelioration program, public hospitals, front liners, education sector, an ineffective and militaristic pandemic response is a testament to the government’s criminal negligence and abject failure.

While they persist in harassing and intimidating students led by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflicts (NTF-ELCAC), the Duterte  regime failed to monitor where the missing P15 billion funds for PhilHealth and the P67 billion budget of the Department of Health (DOH) went. These funds could have been properly utilized to save thousands of lives and put an end to the protracted health crisis.  

With more than 500 days in the world’s longest lockdown, businesses, shopping malls, restaurants, gyms and tourist spots were reopened to the public. But time and again, the clarion calls to reopen the schools and universities fell on the deaf ears of the Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

At this point, there is no denying the regime’s cowardice to the youth’s protests and movements akin to UP system’s ‘Day of Walkout’ last August 20, 2019 that saw thousands of students marching against campus militarization. 

But make no mistake, while it is clear that there might not be face-to-face classes until Duterte is ousted, the youth will never succumb to an administration afraid of academic freedom and critical thinking.

We will see to it, as we militantly stand together with the masses, that another tyrant will fall as we herald the new dawn.

Featured image courtesy of Philstar.com.