MANILA – The posters that appeared on campus were cold. They warned that the University of the Philippines had become a breeding ground for communist sympathizers and that students and professors should be on their guard for insurgents against the government. Some students were even identified as possible offenders.
No one knew where the posters came from, but according to students and university activists, they have been found on many of the different campuses across the country over the past few weeks. Late last month, the government decided to get involved.
To eliminate possible communists at the elite institution, Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana announced a decision to end a 32-year agreement banning security forces from entering the campus and arresting individuals without first coordinating with university officials. Professors and students can now be held under suspicion.
About 200 students gathered at the university in the northern suburb of Quezon City in Manila to protest the announcement. By allowing security forces back on campus, they said, the government has targeted one of the few places in the Philippines where criticism of President Rodrigo Duterte is still tolerated. For them, the purpose of the new rule was clear: another suppression of political freedom in a country where dissenters are often marked and dispatched at once.
“This is the struggle of the people,” Angelo Marfil, one of the students, camped in front of the Quezon Hall building for the protest. “An attack on academic institutions is an attack on all of us because they are trying to scare us,” he said.
Mr. Marfil, a 19-year major in political science, sat cross-legged on the floor with a cup of coffee in his hands while pointing to a new art installation built by students at the university. The installation – which consists of bamboo, old furniture and desks – was designed to look like a barrier and to commemorate an uprising in 1971 at the school.
“It’s symbolic of our protest,” he said. “President Duterte’s government has openly declared war on us.”
Like other students at the protest, with a bit of colorful hair and indigenous clothing, Mr. Marfil joined many demonstrations against governments in what he called the “parliament of the streets”, against corruption of the government and in support of the International Criminal Court investigating Mr. Duterte because of the mass murder of people suspected of being drug dealers and addicts, which the court calls ‘crimes against humanity’.
He was the youngest of four brothers and said that his brothers and sisters advised him to show his rhetoric, but that he decided to ignore their advice.
Cristina Chi, another student at the sit-in protest, agrees that it is not time to remain silent and describes the decision to block the agreement as an intimidation. Ms Chi, a 21-year-old communications chief with plans to become a journalist, said she remembers listening to radio broadcasts of marches and protests as a child and wanted to be able to participate. After studying at the university for two years, she said she became even more passionate about the need for change.
The word ‘revolution’ has become part of her daily conversation, she said, but that does not mean she should be branded a violent insurgent.
“If one of the military hears about this and accuses me, my professor or my classmates of harboring communist ideas, the absence of an agreement will allow them to drag me out of class and arrest me on trump card charges. , “it me. Chi said, adding that activists in progressive groups have already been targeted and that she fears such talks would become the norm on campus.
“It is also insulting that they think we need protection to be brainwashed by communists, as if someone could just decide to join the armed struggle overnight,” she said. ‘I think it’s dangerous and just factually wrong to say that the university should force revolutionary ideas down students’ throats. If it is anything, it is exposed to the poor conditions of state education that open our eyes to become more radical and critical. ”
The University of the Philippines has long been an oasis of freedom of speech, producing some of the country’s leading minds. The expansive, green lawn, lined with large acacia trees, saw important moments in modern Philippine history, including the student protests that overthrew dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Marcos himself was a graduate of the school.
In 1989, three years after a popular uprising put an end to Marcos’ brutal regime, the government agreed to keep security forces off campus. The decision was made after a university employee, Donato Continente, was arrested at the school on suspicion of spotting. Killed James N. Rowe of the U.S. Army, who was a military adviser to the Philippine Army. Mr. Continente was eventually convicted, but he maintained his innocence, claiming he was tortured to make a confession. He was released in 2005 after 14 years in prison.
At least 18 other universities, including four private institutions considered one of the best schools in Manila, have been hailed by the military as ‘recruits’ for communists in recent weeks. The Philippines is one of the few places in the world that has an active communist uprising.
The military has also recently published a list of 27 former students at the University of the Philippines who they say have become members of the New People’s Army, a rebel group that aims to overthrow the government through armed conflict. The list, which included the names of prominent journalists and a former government official, was published on a social media account before being deleted, which Mr. Lorenzana, the defense secretary, was forced to apologize and fire an information officer.
Fidel Nemenzo, chancellor at the university’s main campus in Quezon City, did not want to speculate on why the government abruptly canceled the agreement to keep security forces off campus, as it had served the authorities and the university so well for three decades. However, he did note that the move came a year after Duterte signed an anti-terrorism law designed by activists to stifle political differences.
The law, which gave the military the power to detain suspects without a rally for nearly a month, was signed by Mr. Duterte amid large-scale street protests organized by groups affiliated with the university.
“Part of this campaign is the ‘red labeling’ of institutions and individuals who are critical of the government,” he said. Nemenzo said. “Academic freedom – the freedom to think and speak – requires the absence of fear,” he added. “How can one speak freely if the army can enter the university unannounced?”
While Mr. Sitting in his office in Nemenzo, the Duterte Youth, a right-wing group represented in Congress, tried to hold their own rally on campus the day before the planned sit-in. Mr. Nemenzo encouraged them to break up. Men on military vehicles on campus were reported to be in uniform, he said.
After the group members held a short program in which they expressed their support for Mr. Duterte and mr. Lorenzana said, they left quietly.