Gangsterism up at peace talks site

COTABATO CITY -- Gangsterism pervades at a popular Catholic school campus here, which has a "Peace Center" and where negotiators of the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front have been holding peace talks.

So serious was the problem that faculty members and non-teaching personnel of the Notre Dame University (NDU) here passed a manifesto the other day condemning the spate of atrocities in the campus, including last week's near fatal stabbing of an engineering teacher, Raymund Go, by a group of students.

The incident was preceded by the earlier maulings of innocent students in separate attacks by other students, believed to be hooked on drugs.

In their manifesto, the protesting NDU insiders also called for the immediate replacement of the security agency guarding the university for its failure to address the security problems now gripping their campus.

In an interview with radio station dxMS of the Notre Dame Broadcasting Corporation here, Felipe Gayak, speaking on behalf of the NDU's Faculty Assembly, said their manifesto sought the intervention of Marines "to save the image of NDU as center of peace and education."

Officials of various student organizations at NDU said those involved in the recent spate of hostilities in their school have all been positively identified but the local police have been helpless in solving the cases.

Another source has confirmed that apart from bringing in drugs into the campus, many of the misbehaving students also carry handguns.