State-sponsored hearing blatantly red-tags UP students, orgs
by Mai Allauigan
Despite pressing issues in education such as the looming budget cut for state universities and colleges (SUCs), Senator Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) instead use public funds to conduct hearings that blatantly red-tag university students and organizations, most of whom are from the University of the Philippines (UP).
Rabid red-tagging
Last Aug. 6, Senator Bato dela Rosa presided over a hearing on Senate Resolution №83, or the inquiry into the alleged recruitment of students to communist groups. The hearing was railroaded in pursuit of possibly amending the Anti-Terror Law.
Dela Rosa brazenly accused councils and organizations for being recruitment hubs of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). In addition, he accused ‘recruiters’ of masquerading as university faculty and administrators.
Using so-called rebel returnees’ testimonies, he then recommended institutions’ guidance counselors to profile their students and keep an eye on those who are supposedly vulnerable to recruitment.
“‘Pag nakita niyo ang isang estudyante na medyo matalino — pag UP talaga matalino naman talaga eh — medyo matalino tapos medyo tahimik, tapos medyo parang galit sa mundo, ‘yan ang napakadaling i-recruit doon na magiging extremist at magbe-bear ng firearms, sumama sa NPA,” he expressed.
Baseless accusations, weak justifications
During the hearing, the Philippine National Police also alleged that a total of 168 students, a majority of which were from SUCs, were recruited into “communist-terrorist” groups from 2014 to 2024.
They also claimed that the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), Polytechnic University of the Philippines Manila, UP Manila, and UP Tacloban were among the universities with the highest number of recruited students.
To further justify military interference, they argued that the UP-DND accord merely hampered their free entry and was allegedly utilized to promote radicalization.
Defend UP
Students and progressive organizations across the UP system swiftly condemned Dela Rosa and the NTF-ELCAC for their blatant red-tagging and vilification. In particular, the UP Office of the Student Regent deemed the series of hearings a waste of public funds.
“These funds could have been put to good use by rechanneling them for social services, especially education. We ask that the Senate leadership forbid Sen. Dela Rosa from using government resources to further suppress the people and engage in harmful and even deadly red-tagging,” the statement reads.
Coincidingly, these hearings were followed by the recent inking of the Declaration of Cooperation between UP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines last Aug. 8.
As if to double down, it was also on the same day that the Commission on Higher Education affirmed its membership for the NTF-ELCAC.
Since the unilateral abrogation of the UP-DND accord, the UP community has witnessed more relentless attacks on academic freedom.
