NTF-ELCAC-LCC on the Friday 13th, 2022 Statement of the University of the Philippines

Republic of the Philippines

LCC-PP-2022-027

NTF-ELCAC

Manila

PRESS STATEMENT

In a Friday the 13th, 2022 Statement, the University of the Philippines' President Advisory Council (UP-PAC) has decried the alleged "red-tagging" by the government's anti-communist task force, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), on those who called for academic walkouts, following the apparent victory of former senator Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. in the May 9 presidential election.

For an institution that prides itself in critical thinking, the UP-PAC’s statement instead showed that they are bereft of any semblance of critical thinking. The Filipino people, through their vote, has exercised their sovereign right to choose their leaders. The Philippines is a democratic state. We are ruled not by the noisy minority, but by the majority under the rule of law. We have no appointed monarch; the Filipino people is the monarch and sovereign.

It’s time for the militants to accept that the people, through the recent election, has overwhelmingly rejected their candidates who enable the communist terrorists to sow fear, terror, damage, and deaths against the populace. To call for “walk-outs” and rallies against the democratically elected President is an insult to the sovereign will of the Filipino People – who chose in their wisdom the next President through an overwhelming majority and mandate. To reject an elected President and to substitute him by the “chosen one” of those who “walked-out” is to install minority rule – hardly the epitome of their vaunted “critical thinking”. Questioning the results of an election, without proof of fraud that their candidate really “won”, is to put the election process into disrepute, as well as the people who made their voices known through the election, and the countless teachers who made the election clean, fair, and successful.

Instead of wasting the tax payers’ money and squandering the learners’ time to gain knowledge, by calling for students “walk-outs”, it would do well for UP to teach its students in academics and more importantly, patriotism, and to accept and abide with the decision of the majority, the rule of law, and those who govern over them. Use the hard-earned tax of the Filipino people to create students who will help in genuine nation-building, not to radicalize students to question the decision of the majority.