What makes students of the University of the Philippines so special that they get to study in an exclusive sanctuary against state security forces that no other student bodies in the Philippines enjoy? The fact is, all Filipino students and all jurisdictions that are subject to Philippine law already protected by the Bill of Rights which guarantees freedom of speech and assembly. Why then are the communists and their “woke” comrades in the Philippine Opposition framing this issue as some sort of “assault” on “academic freedom”?
The Communist Party of the Philippines and the honchos of its vassal front groups would like everyone to believe that all Filipino students are beneficiaries of an agreement between UP and the Department of National Defense (DND) that makes UP campuses “safe” from the the military. This is a lie. The only real beneficiaries of this agreement are none other than communist elements. They enjoy a parasitical relationship with the UP student body effectively using them — including most ordinary students who merely want to study in peace — as human shields. This is the true crooked intent of the CPP in the outrage fad they are now drumming up to “protest” the termination of this agreement by the DND.
As a matter of principle, an agreement to ban soldiers from the UP campus is nonsensical — because it is a redundancy. All Filipinos are guaranteed individual rights by the Philippine Constitution against persecution and arbitrary arrest and detention. Why then is an agreement on top of that necessary? Is such an agreement even legal? Imagine the Ayala family signing a similar agreement with the DND to make the Ayala Center a sanctuary from the Philippine Police or Army. Ridiculous, right?
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The bottom line here is that UP students are not criminals that need to be fearful of state security forces. The only people defending this ludicrous sanctuary “agreement” between UP and the DND are criminals and terrorists. Usually it is the simplest explanation that is most likely to offer the most sound reasoning. No need to go into lengthy treatises and statements — not to mention obsolete Cold War era slogans — to justify protesting against the termination of a nonsensical agreement.
The communists and their “woke” lackeys in one or the other “activist” group as well as those “reporters” under the employ of Big Corporate Media should stop insulting the intelligence of Filipinos. It’s hight time things are simplified and all these redundant and unnecessary complications that hinder efficient law enforcement and military intelligence gathering be dismantled. Now na!
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
I’ve been wondering how ironic it was, that state military and police are banned from entering state property – imagine being banned from your own turf.
For such a premier institution they make a lot of thoughtless pronouncements on free speech and dissent. And for their position in society they haven’t walked their talk.
Apparently they have a lot of well-placed allies in gov’t who should be able to “fix” their concerns.
who wants a campus crawling with soldiers? its not conducive to learning especially that age the students are immature and still growing/learning. incidents might happen.
just fight ideas with better ideas.
Finally, someone with a brain in this forum.
I totally agree with you greengrin. But, unfortunately, most of the people in this forum lack the mental capacity to think logically.
Why aren’t the campuses of other universities with no such accords “crawling with soldiers” then? Also, the same can be said of communists. Who wants campuses infested with commies?
Benign0,
“Just fight ideas with better ideas.”
When you bring in the soldiers, its because you admit you cannot win the battle of ideas.
Its that simple really.
Oh, I see. So that is why the communists resort to terrorism and maintain an illegal private army called the “New People’s Army”.
benigno i agree that UP should not have unique setup with state security. but on the bigger point, i think its the same as berating or beating up your child for exploring “dangerous ideas”. it doesn’t work and usually backfires. much better to teach them to think for themselves, and of course teach also what you think are superior ideas. then hope for the best and allow them to be the unique person that they are (and still love them unconditionally hehehe). in time, for 99% of them, you’ll see that they turn out all right.
To be fair, the communists don’t really represent the broader UP student community. Furthermore, their ideology had been proven to be a failure globally and, as such, did in fact succumb to the “superior ideas” you mentioned. So I don’t really see them as anything of consequence — neither in UP life (based on my own experience) nor in national politics (other than what admittedly is a pet peeve of mine in the way they presume to speak for and represent the UP community which, to put this in perspective, is just a mere personal annoyance). One could also argue that the suckers they recruit to their “revolution” are just a casualty of Darwinism. Dumb people don’t grow up to propagate their DNA. So that’s all fair as well in the evolutionary scheme of things.
So I do get your point. Just let it be and the communists will go extinct sooner or later — that is, unless there are stupid Filipinos in big enough numbers that will keep their ideology alive and relevant which, knowing Filipinos, the “thought leaders” they choose to pay heed to, and their intellectually-bankrupt politics, is the only risk I see following that course of thinking.
Why are you bothered with soldiers being around the campus? As if you are hiding something from the authorities. In my School University in my college time there are some military officers who teach and lead ROTC training and nobody is bothered. Free speech and dialogue is not prohibited.