Lawmakers seek probe on students' rights violations in UST

MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers at the House of Representatives filed on Monday a resolution urging an investigation into several reported instances of censorship and restrictions allegedly imposed on students at the University of Santo Tomas.

House Resolution 1633 filed by the Makabayan bloc identifies at least four student institutions and two individuals whose rights and freedoms to express and associate freely were reportedly "violated" by officials of the private Catholic educational institution, including the most recent censorship of student-run organization TomasinoWeb. 

This comes nearly a month after UST ordered the online removal of a TomasinoWeb photo of students entering a popular convenience store inside campus, saying that the viral photo would cause "public ridicule" due to the similarities between students' "Type B" uniforms and the uniforms used by the store's employees.

The incident led to the resignation of TomasinoWeb's publication adviser, Leo Laparan II, which forced the organization to temporarily stop operations as rules by the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) require all organizations to operate with an adviser. 

UST officials immediately drew flak from several students and alumni who described the incident as a violation of campus press freedom and part of the school's "systemic problem of campus repression, which they have refused to address and instead have allowed to fester," according to a statement in February.

"The resolution highlights the repression faced by TomasinoWeb, including the forced removal of a photo album and threats of non-accreditation, leading to the resignation of the organization's adviser. It also sheds light on the challenges faced by student councils in upholding their autonomy and engaging in discussions on national issues," Kabataan Partylist said in a statement on Monday.

The House resolution said that student councils inside UST are routinely pressured into steering clear of events that touch on "national issues."

In one instance described by the House resolution, the UST Artlets Student Council based in the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters was asked to provide the Zoom link to a webinar on "the importance of activism and how to combat ... red-tagging" by the UST OSA "as they found out that progressive speakers were invited for the event."

Members of UST’s university-wide student council are also "experiencing difficulty in functioning and upholding its autonomy due to repression from UST OSA."

The House resolution said that UST's student affairs body was "notorious for its heavy-handed restrictive acts, including consistent threats, intimidation and gagging of the duly elected student council officers whenever they attempt to participate in the discussion of national issues."

"In general, whenever UST student councils try to secure approval of the UST OSA for activities with themes connected to national issues, they are, at best, burdened with excessive bureaucratic protocols and, at worst, humiliated publicly and even red-tagged," the House resolution said.

Students have also been reportedly sanctioned for joining organizations not accredited by the university, and campus security have been deployed in the past to stop their activities on campus, such as when they conducted discussions and distributed pamphlets, the House resolution said.

Philstar.com has reached out to UST for comment and will update this story with their response.

The protection of campus press freedom is outlined under the Republic Act No. 7079 or the Campus Journalism Act of 1991. But the law, which was ratified under former President Corazon Aquino, has been described as outdated and particularly impossible to implement in educational institutions where publications do not enjoy fiscal autonomy. 

Even as lawmakers from the House and the Senate have sought to reform the law in recent years, none of the bills have made it past committee-level approval.