STUDENT council officers on Feb. 3 released a statement calling for the reconsideration of penalties imposed on student-activists as they denounced the “red-tagging” hurled at the University and its students.
In a joint statement, the Central Student Council (CSC) and local student councils urged the University to be “the first and foremost bastion of democratic rights in exercising academic freedom.”
“We strongly call for the reconsideration of charges placed on Thomasian student activists and urge those with similar cases to come forward to their local grievance committees in order to arrange dialogues with respective administering bodies,” the statement read.
“We enjoin Thomasian priests, our professors, and administrators to uphold the rights of students, with respect to their student welfare. We must never forget that our saints, to a great degree, were radical activists who urged for social change and that duties towards our state go hand-in-hand with our religious teachings,” it added.
The student leaders also denounced the “deep-rooted history of malpactrice and long-standing abuse of power towards members of the academe committed by those within and outside the University.”
MUST READ: UST CENTRAL AND LOCAL STUDENT COUNCILS’ UNITY STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM#CSC2020Vision#CSCTranscendingBorders pic.twitter.com/YR6elsPxWE
— UST Central Student Council (@UST_CSC) February 3, 2021
Their statement came weeks after the UST Senior High School removed a student from its provisional student council for being part of Anakbayan, a leftist group not recognized by the University, and barred him from readmission after the end of the term.
‘Red-tagging’ hit
The student councils also denounced the allegation of an official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, that 18 Metro Manila colleges and universities, including UST, were “recruitment havens” for communist rebels.
“These forefront allegations and baseless accusations have been notorious for endangering the lives of students, faculty members and the marginalized,” the statement read.
CSC Interim Secretary Krizia Milleny Bricio called Parlade’s allegations an “irresponsible action of the government” as these imperiled the safety of students.
UST, along with Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University and Far Eastern University earlier condemned Parlade’s accusations, asserting that they “neither promote nor condone recruitment activities of the New People’s Army and, indeed, of any movement that aims to violently overthrow the government.” Joanne Christine Ramos
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