Due to non-stop red-tagging and attacks from state forces during the pandemic, various councils filed a resolution to “mobilize and concretize efforts in protecting the basic rights to democratic expression and academic freedom” on the first day of the 53rd General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) today, August 26, at the University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Economics and Management function hall.
GASC Resolution 2022-6 was authored by the UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences Student Council, UP Diliman University Student Council, UP Dentistry Student Council, UP Visayas School of Technology Student Council, and the UP Diliman College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Student Council.
A year of attacks
The said resolution cited a number of mass arrests conducted under the Duterte administration such as the “Cabuyao 11”, “Pride 20”, “Piston 6”, “Cebu 8”, “Iloilo 42”, “QC 18”, “New Bataan 5”, and “Tinang 92,” which victimized a number of UP students.
Among those arrested in these cases are students of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP) such as Geography major Jim Bagano and Philosophy major Joshua Marcial who were arrested in Quezon City for organizing a community kitchen during the pandemic.
Furthermore, the case of Tinang 92 was also cited in the resolution. Three CSSP students were arrested during their bungkalan activity in Concepcion, Tarlac. A Manila Collegian staffer was also detained while covering an anti-US rally in Manila last May.
Many of those arrested were charged due to their legal initiatives which the government criminalizes and vilifies. This has become common under the past Duterte rule with more than 4,000 illegal arrests being done, primarily against unarmed activists.
Aside from arrests, red-tagging has also become a common weapon for state forces against dissent. In CSSP alone, five cases have been recorded since 202. SINAG, SALiGAN sa CSSP, League of Filipino Students–CSSP, UP Political Society, and a member of the UP Samahan sa Agham Pampulitika were tagged as “communists” for their critical stances and initiatives against the crimes of the Duterte administration.
With the passage of the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2022, the National Task Force to End Local Armed Communist Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) was empowered and funded to conduct such illegal arrests, red-tagging, and surveillance of student-leaders and student organizations in the UP System and other universities. In UP, brazen state-sponsored attacks have increased after then-Defense secretary Gen. Delfin Lorenzana unilaterally abrogated the UP-DND Accord last January 2020.
To quote from the resolution, the authors indict “the government has continuously shown its inability to prioritize the needs of the Filipino people in the midst of a health crisis, choosing instead to pursue militaristic and fascistic efforts as manifested in state-sponsored attacks towards the people and the university – all of which are expected to worsen given the return of the Marcoses to power and the extension of a Duterte regime as the illegitimate result of the fraudulent 2022 national elections.”
Another year of defending UP
Given the resurgence of another Marcos rule, councils have resolved to increase their militancy and unity to continue the Defend UP campaign. Aside from defending the university, resolution authors highlighted the need to defend the people and their rights.
Citing basic constitutional safeguards by the Bill of Rights, the resolution affirms the people’s right to free expression, speech, and public assembly. Furthermore, the authors emphasize the need to protect academic freedom which is also a constitutionally-guaranteed freedom to think and study without restrictions.
Building on constitutional guarantees, the resolution recognizes past efforts of the UP student movement to protect our academic freedom from state terrorism. It mentions past GASC resolutions such as the explicit call to defend UP and academic freedom, institutionalize the UP-DND Accord, condemn book-purges, and supporting Kabataan Party-list’s legislative efforts to protect the academic freedom of all Philippine schools.
Guided by the resolve to defend the university of the people against attacks by the Marcos-Duterte forces, council authors resolved to:
- Continue the Defend UP campaign
- Develop a system-wide red-tagging protocol
- Commit university administrations to protect their constituents
- Maintain the university as a safe spaces
- Strengthen and expand the Defend UP Network
- Support legislation to institutionalize the UP-DND Accord
- Call for the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC and defund the AFP and PNP
- Reject Marcos-Duterte and the Anti-Terrorism Act and BP 880
- Fight for rights and freedoms outside the University
- Exhaust all means to resist the “illegitimate Marcos-Duterte regime”
Aside from this GASC resolution, nominees for the 39th UP Student Regent have also included measures to defend UP in their plans of action. It is important to note that proposals to create a system-wide protocols on red-tagging and institutionalize the UP-DND Accord are included in the plans of nominees. However, developments on these pro-student policies are yet to be concretized and more mobilization is needed for it.
In an interview with SINAG, CSSP SC Chair Vayne del Rosario responded that the resolution is very significant for the college because the latter seeks to study society and the ways to transform it. She added that understanding society, standing up with the oppressed, and uniting with their demands is not an incorrect or a terrorist act.
“Sapagkat ang ating mga kinakaharap na problema ay may malalalim na pinanggagalingan, kinakailangan ugatin ang mga pinanggalingan at tumindig ang Konsensiya ng Bayan para sa kalayaang pang-akademiko at pagpapahayag,” she emphasized.
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Featured image courtesy of SINAG
