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PRESS STATEMENT
UP Community for Academic and Political Freedoms declares current
situation as "worse than martial law"
March 29, 2007
On the heels of the release of the report of UN Special Rapporteur Philip
Alston, the CBCP call for the withdrawal of military troops in Metro
Manila communities and on the eve of the Supreme Court hearing on Bayan
Muna party list Rep. Satur Ocampo, a group of professors, students,
administrative and research staff from the University of the Philippines
as well as alumni formed the UP Community for Academic and Political
Freedoms (UPCAPF) in the wake of what they refer to as the continuing
"attack on academic and political freedoms" in the country.
In a forum held this morning at the College of Mass Communications of the
University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, UP Professor Dr.
Ramon Guillermo read the statement which assailed the government’s
barefaced denial of culpability in the face of "damning evidence and the
widespread national and international consensus" that state security
forces are behind the killing of hundreds of activists, lawyers, church
peoples, women and children, teachers and professors and journalists.
The UP community also regards as a "turn for the worse" the recent arrest
and detention of Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo over trumped up
charges. The UP organization sees this "complete and blatant disregard for
Satur's human rights" as a bid to silence a known vocal critic of the
administration. Noting that the killings continue unabated, the trampling
of political freedoms of known critics of government as the case with
Satur Ocampo, and the deployment of battle-ready troops in urban areas,
they declare the current militarized situation as, despite the recent
statements of Manila Archbishop Cardinal Rosales, "worse than martial
law".
They are especially alarmed over the creeping militarization of campuses.
In UP alone, the group cites a number of incidents that expose this
"attack on academic and political freedoms" in UP and beyond. Former UP
President Francisco Nemenzo, together with other critics of the
administration were charged with rebellion. The case of the missing UP
students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, remains unresolved nine months
after they were abducted by masked military men while volunteering for a
farmer's organization in Bulacan. With the arrest of her husband,
Professor Carolina Malay, former Professor and Chair of the Department of
Journalism of the College of Mass Communication is once again facing the
ordeal of state persecution that she and her husband went through during
the Marcos dictatorship.
The mother of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño's brother spoke were
invited to speak in the forum together with President Nemenzo and Prof.
Bobby Malay. They gave updates on the status of their cases and assailed
the government for its abuse of power and wanton violation of their human
rights.
Another speaker, a representative from the Kabataan Youth Party-List
Group, shared other universities' experience of miltarization in their
campuses. According to her, the Philippine Army's Civil-Military
Operations (CMO) Battalion held so-called Awareness and Information"
drives last February 26 and March 5 at Adamson University (AU) and at the
Philippine Normal University (PNU) respectively where they attacked
legitimate party-list groups and organizations as labeled them as
communist fronts. Last December, military personnel were also caught
red-handed taking pictures and attempting to ransack the student council
office of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP).
To demonstrate the indignation within the UP community, banners from
different colleges with the signature of students, faculty and staff, that
decry the violation of the people's academic and political freedoms, were
unveiled. A mock book with the pictures and names of the victims of this
administration was also revealed. Professors, students and staff then took
their turns affixing their signature on the book as a gesture of
solidarity with the victims of human rights abuses and a declaration of
their committed opposition to Macapagal-Arroyo's brutal policies that
violate cherished civil liberties and academic freedom.
The group then vowed to join Satur Ocampo on Friday, March 30, as his case
undergoes oral deliberations before the Supreme Court. They promised to
register their continued protest and declared that teach-ins, symposia and
other activities will be held in the coming weeks in UP.
Cultural presentations from folk artist Jess Santiago and the Congress of
Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) cultural group
also took place.
---
For verification, please call Dr. Ramon Guillermo (0918-5765343) of the UP
Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature or Prof. Danilo Arao
(0917-8332726) of the UP Department of Journalism.
Download statement in text format
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He had a better topic:
“Tell her about our youngest.”
And she,
with a lilt that is unmistakably hers,
who thinks that her past sixties
should be hers and not her students’,
could not but continue to speak
in that cadence,
obligingly did.
She was of the
Underground while he
was, as he is now, a legal personality.
While some local actor was fast becoming a household name,
Hers was almost forbidden in their household.
She left motherhood for a cause
and History has yet to confirm this suspicion.
The kids turned out well, anyhow.
But before they did
the youngest came
to visit her
with the most urgent question:
My teacher, she would ask me about you.
Tell her I’m in the province.
By now, the child has grown impatient.
It’s not that. She wants your name.
What is your name, Nanay?
She tore a piece of paper from the edge
of a daily, wrote her answer and
handed it to the little one.
He stared at the characters for eternity,
(that was how she calculated time)
folded the piece neatly and inserted it
in the side pocket of his walking shorts.
He walks out of prison bouncing.
He is now into the family secret.
Telling this burns her still.
She thought this, all of this
lives in the before of her life.*
Her image is as soft as pinstripe pastel,
it begs the visitor to rake her fingers through
like a comb.**
March 26, 2007
Sarah Raymundo
who is an assistant professor of sociology in UP Diliman and General
Secretary of the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and
Democracy visited Satur Ocampo at the Manila Police District last Sunday,
March 25, 2007. Bobbie Malay, former professor of journalism in UP Diliman
and wife of Satur, was with Satur.
*after Janna Harris’ 1859:Galena, Illinois:”This, all of this,/lives in
the Before of my life.” In The Dust of Everyday Life:An Epic Poem of the
Pacific Northwest, 1997:48. Seattle: Sasquatch Books.
**after Book Four Ink: Thomas and Helen Hodgson (Olympia, Washington,
State Capital, Swantwon Lane, 1890-1891:
“...From/a few
bushels of wheat/(saved by settlers who/ate rootbread) have sprung/twice
as many hectares/of weaving green so/soft a color it begs you/to rake your
fingers through/like a comb.” In Joanna Harris’ The Dust of Everyday
Life:An Epic Poem of the Pacific Northwest, 1997:123. Seattle: Sasquatch
Books).
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Two
Visits
(for Bobbie Malay)
by Sarah Raymundo
Pinstripe Pastel. That would have been his wife
if she were a theme
for a mobile phone’s interface.
“Funny thought,” the visitor tells herself
as if to dissimulate
the abyss of discomfort
involved in jail visits to strangers.
He was no stranger after all.
People know him by his fist
(usually clenched for photo-ops and for life).
Is he, like the old folks in their hometown,
wearing cheap pomade?
She wasn’t suppose to ask,
not when he is wearing a blue-collared shirt
neatly embroidered with a sign:
BAYAN MUNA. --- >>>>>
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