STUDENT council officers criticized the government’s lack of a clear plan to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic following President Rodrigo Duterte’s 5th State of the Nation Address on Monday.
The UST central and college-based student councils also decried the lack of accountability among public officials found to have violated quarantine rules amid a crackdown on dissenters and attacks on press freedom.
“As we reflect upon the state of our nation, so stands our responsibility to address incompetence, the lack of national response from the administration in implementing the need for mass testing and systemic protocols in containing the virus and its blatant value for militarization over medical solutions,” the Central Student Council (CSC) said in a unity statement with local student councils.
The CSC hit the Duterte administration’s double standards in reprimanding quarantine violators, citing Metro Manila Police chief Debold Sinas and Sen. Koko Pimentel as examples.
“It is first and foremost just that we demand accountability from our officials before creating rushed laws that impede our fundamental rights and freedom of speech,” the council officers said.
“From the administration’s low-blow attack of rejecting ABS-CBN’s franchise in an effort to stifle press freedom, to the expedited approval of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, the government has made the silencing of our fellow Filipinos its utmost priority in a time of crisis,” the statement read.
The student leaders also urged Thomasians to speak up for the silenced and the oppressed.
“As our rights are being taken away, we can no longer sit idly by and watch our freedom slowly being compromised and abused by those in position of power,” they said.
The statement was released right after President Duterte ended his 5th State of The Nation Address.
