CHED tells UP Diliman officials: Respect schools' removal of 'subversive' readings
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Higher Education has defended several state universities' move to pull out supposedly subversive materials from their libraries, in what some had warned is a "clear example of censorship."
It can be recalled that Kalinga, Isabela, and Aklan state universities took out the said reading materials and turned such over to their regional anti-communist task force.
"Higher educational institutions must respect these decisions of other HEIs in the spirit of mutual respect and proper governance of their institutions," said CHED chief Prospero de Vera III in a statement on Tuesday.
He was particularly responding to a statement by University of the Philippines-Diliman officials in October that said the decision was against academic freedom.
Said UPD's Office of the Chancellor Executive Staff in Filipino: "If we continue removing select materials from libraries, we are molding students who are ignorant, not open to criticism, and afraid to ask questions or take a stand."
Dean Mary Grace Golfo-Barcelona of UP's School of Library and Information Studies has since shared that view.
She told Philstar.com that removing materials for their ideological content would only deprive students of their right to read and their freedom to information.
De Vera said many universities are critical of policies adopted by UP but do not speak about it, citing respect for governance of individual educational institutions. He did not elaborate.
"It would be best for the Chancellor of UP Diliman and other officials to be more prudent, circumspect, respectful and discerning," he added, "in issuing statements especially involving the exercise of academic freedom of other higher education institutions."
But for a group of progressive faculty members in UP, the CHED chairperson seemed to be divering the issue away from censorship "into a mere administrative matter."
"The purging of books from public libraries is one of the severest forms of censorship and De Vera's statement effectivelt sanctions it," said Lakan Umali of the group Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy. — Christian Deiparine with reports from Bella Perez-Rubio
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