MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila universities have denounced the military's claim yet again done without proof that they are recruiting students to the communist movement, in what appears to be another attempt by state forces to tag schools as having ties with the CPP-NPA.
School administrators on Sunday rejected Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade's recent remarks, describing it as irresponsible and a mere rehash of what he had alleged in 2018, which had visibly failed to materialize as like this one, came with no concrete evidence.
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"We therefore object to General Parlade's statement and emphasize that our institutions neither promote nor condone recruitment activities of the New People's Army and, indeed, of any movement that aims to violently overthrow government," the statement read, as posted by Ateneo on Twitter.
Joint Statement on the accusations of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr on schools being recruitment havens of the CPP/NPA pic.twitter.com/aIlBqxP8LY
— Ateneo de Manila (@ateneodemanilau) January 24, 2021
Signatories of the joint statement were Fr. Roberto Yap of the Jesuit-run Ateneo, Bro. Raymundo Suplido of De La Salle Manila, Fr. Isaias Tiongco of University of Santo Tomas, and Dr. Michael Alba of Far Eastern University.
There were 18 schools in total included in Parlade's claim, others of which would no longer be named as he had not supported his allegation.
The military spokesperson has long been known as having a knack for blatantly resorting to "red-tagging" or naming individuals or institutions as having communist ties, which often results in those linked as facing threats or worse, killed.
In October last year, no less than Defense chief Delfin Lorenzana essentially told Parlade to keep it to himself if he would only fail to substantiate his accusations which, at that time, was hurled against celebrities.
To date, Parlade faces criminal and administrative charges for his repeated red-tagging, particularly on members of the progressive Makabayan bloc in Congress in July 2020 and of human rights advocates later in December of that year.
No progress, however, has so far been reported on the cases.
"We assert that: As Philippine schools, we value the Filipinos' basic constitutional rights of speech, thought, assembly, and organization," the statement continued, asserting that higher educational institutions "must retain independence and autonomy from the State and other social institutions."
The incident comes a week after the defense department nixed its accord with state-run University of the Philippines, which had prohibited entry of military and police personnel in its campuses after three decades.
It has since been viewed largely as a threat to academic freedom, and is seen to reduce spaces for expressing dissent at a time when protests are disallowed due to the pandemic.
The Duterte administration has sought to rid the country of its decades-long insurgency problem, but no less than President Rodrigo Duterte just years ago shunned holding peace talks until the end of his term.
Such efforts have seen him, Parlade and others particularly in the anti-communist task force, as naming individuals out in the open as having ties with the now declared terrorist group CPP-NPA, sans proof.