Lawmaker denounces UP ‘bigoted hooligans’

MANILA, Philippines - Rep. Rodel Batocabe of party-list group Ako Bicol denounced yesterday the “bigoted hooligans” at the University of the Philippines who attacked Budget Secretary Florencio Abad after speaking at a forum on the budget last week.

“As an alumnus of the UP school of economics, I am ashamed that within the bastion of academic freedom, there is a bigoted, misguided and intolerant minority that does not know how to respect the views of others,” he said.

“Violence, much less mobocracy, has no place in a civilized society. These hooligans do not deserve to be iskolar ng bayan, and sad to say, we are only wasting our taxes subsidizing their education,” he said.

It was the student council of the UP school of economics that invited Abad. However, after the forum, members of another group calling itself Stand UP mobbed the budget secretary on his way out of the building, with some grabbing his barong and preventing him from stepping into his vehicle.

Economics professors of the state university have also denounced the attack on Abad. Like Batocabe, they described the attackers as “hooligans.”

The professors said student-members of Stand UP assaulted Abad “by throwing placards and metal coins and physically laying hold of him, grabbing his clothing to prevent him from leaving.”

“This incident is not a victory but a blow to UP’s honor,” they said.

They said Abad, as an invited guest, “was covered by the same blanket of academic freedom and safe passage that the university guarantees to all who set foot on campus.”

“The purpose of that high privilege is to guarantee a free traffic in diverse ideas – and of the diverse people who espouse them – which is the lifeblood of a liberal academic institution,” they added.

The economics professors asked students to dissociate themselves from Abad’s attackers.

They urged university officials to identify the budget chief’s assailants and those responsible for the attack and punish them if necessary.

“We call for a renewed discussion and clarification among faculty, staff and students, of the University’s unwritten rules of free speech and safe passage, to ensure that the University remains a free and fearless field for ideas, where debates are won not by assault but by argument, not by shouting down but by speaking up,” they said.