HOW RIDICULOUS that President Duterte who wrings his iron fist at the slightest excuse, who has kowtowed to Communist China and committed the treason of allowing it to occupy Philippine territory and even to bully our poor fishermen out of Philippine waters, who disgustingly spews misogynistic comments, who dismisses human rights, and who attacks the Catholic Church, the faith of majority of Filipinos, is the same man who, when criticized by the press and others on the public sphere, throws tantrums like a child who hasn’t been given his favorite toy. It’s no wonder that the same people and government officials who praise the ground he walks on show the same type of attitude – raising their fist, questioning the motives of dissenters, presenting themselves as unassailable, and spewing venom after ugly venom against their critics.
An example of this so-called Duterte loyalist is Sen. Roland “Bato” de la Rosa who lost his composure last August 22 in a Senate hearing on the revival of mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) in senior high school. Raoul Manuel of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, mentioned the Senator’s comment on giving convicted former Calauan, Laguna mayor Antonio Sanchez, who was sentenced to seven reclusion perpetua terms (40 years each) for a rape-slay in 1993 a “second chance.” The remark hit a sensitive spot on De la Rosa, nicknamed “The Rock,” who immediately flared up and accused Manuel of going off-topic and even questioned the student’s love for country. Such a bold move for a Senator who formerly headed the war on drugs that caused the deaths of innocent lives and violation of human rights. Then again, he gets it from the man above, the President, who seemed not to have overlooked the dire implications of his proclamation in his first State of the Nation address in which he insisted on the righteousness of his murderous anti-drug campaign: “Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives.”
So when people take to the streets to practice their freedom of expression, to defend their rights and protest his regime, the madman takes personal offense. For an iron-fisted strongman who displays his macho braggadocio by making demeaning remarks about women and the Church, Duterte is onion-skinned; he easily takes offense and shrilly screams foul like a sissy! Ditto with his partisans such as The Rock!
Duterte needs to stop whining at the slightest criticism. He should stop playing the victim’s card, crying wolf whenever somebody criticizes his authoritarian excesses. Whenever anyone tries to point a critical finger at him and his actions, he takes it sourly, if not vindictively. He then lashes back despotically, for instance banning media organizations from covering events where he will be present. Obviously, such measures are meant to silence the press. Truly our despicable madman needs to realize that there is a difference between personal feelings and public criticism.
Now the despot is clamping down on schools. Two days prior to the Senate hearing on the ROTC revival, A “Day of Walkout and Action” was declared on August 20 at the University of the Philippines in Diliman to protest the police and military presence on campus.
This was after Senator Bato called for increased military presence on campus to stop the alleged recruitment and kidnapping of students by “leftist groups.”
Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya even called the idea of militarization in universities as nothing but a propaganda by communist rebels, a “figment of the imagination”, to make the government seem a “repressive monster.” He however claimed that activism is also encouraged because of our country’s democratic society as long as its freedom does not go over the bounds of law. Senator De la Rosa seemed to have betrayed the design of government in sending uniformed men to state universities, saying that they were there to conduct “indoctrination.”
Against all of this subtle or not too subtle anti-democratic measures, UST must uphold its academic freedom and freedom from state interference and “national security” overreaching. UST prides itself for having a student body that is known for airing out its concerns freely and for providing a safe open space for individuals to express their thoughts and beliefs. Now if the government ever knocks on the University’s door and demands that its security forces be allowed to check leftist forces, the answer should immediately be a flat no.
First of all, the University is a private institution, it doesn’t belong to the government. The need for military presence in the school would be a slim chance as UST is a haven of peace and order and academic and creative ferment. Second, UST is a Pontifical University and should be considered part of the Catholic Church and therefore, separate from the State. Third, militarization would be a form of repression, instilling fear in the minds of the students and faculty. It will also jeopardize the academic freedom of the faculty. Professors and students have every right to exercise their beliefs, opinions and principles in the University and having uninvited guests in military or police uniforms may be construed as a form of state surveillance that will constitute a subtle crackdown on or censorship of independent thought. No outside force, especially the state’s military and police, should be allowed to enter the sacrosanct academic grounds of UST without any justifiable reason or invitation by the administration.
