UP professor arrested in SSS case cleared

MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QC RTC) has dismissed the charges filed against a University of the Philippines Diliman professor and former president of an academic employees’ union, who was arrested by the police last month in connection with her supposed failure to remit the Social Security System (SSS) contributions of her house helper.

The UP community, led by the All-UP Academic Employees Union and Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) hailed the QC RTC’s decision on the case of Melania Flores, a former AUPAEU national president and currently faculty member of the UP’s Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas (Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature).

In a statement, the AUPAEU and CONTEND said the QC RTC dismissed the case against Flores after the SSS executed an affidavit of desistance.

“The trumped-up case against Prof. Lanie has been dismissed. This only proves that the case has no basis,” the AUPAEU said.

The AUPAEU and CONTEND maintained that Flores was wrongfully accused and was a victim of harassment by state forces.

“Prof. Flores should be the last to experience such dirty harassment schemes of the state to attack UP activists, unionists and academic freedom,” AUPAEU national president Perlita Raña said.

“We call on the UP administration to hasten the creation of a university-wide committee on the promotion and protection of academic freedom and human rights to ensure the rights and liberties of its constituents against attacks by state forces, as proposed by UP Faculty Regent Carl Marc Ramota,” Raña added.

The AUPAEU leader said that despite the dismissal of charges against Flores, those who perpetrated the harassment and intimidation against her must still be held accountable.

“The legal harassment against her is a clear demonstration of the state forces’ high-handedness and abuse of authority to intimidate her and other activists and unionists. Prof. Flores has our full support in seeking justice and holding the perpetrators accountable for their transgressions,” Raña said.

Flores, meanwhile, thanked the UP community for its “vigilance and collective action.”

“It is through the vigilance and collective action of the UP community that I was released on bail, charges were eventually dismissed and further attacks were repulsed,” she said.

“This experience teaches us an important lesson: that in the face of repression and oppression, our only recourse is to collectively push back, not only for UP constituents, but also for every Filipino, whose rights are violated,” she added.

Flores was arrested by Philippine National Police (PNP) officers, who pretended to be from the Department of Social Welfare and Development, at her residence on campus last Feb. 6.

She was not informed of the charges against her when she was taken to Camp Karingal in Quezon City.

Flores was charged for allegedly violating the Social Security Act, specifically the provisions on the remittance of contributions, as she allegedly failed to remit to SSS the contribution of her helper.

The warrant, issued in September last year by QC RTC Branch 230, set the bail at P72,000.

She was freed later on the day of her arrest, after posting bail.

The PNP defended the arrest and told the UP community not to “overstretch the issue.”

The UP leadership has scored the police for their “brazen disregard” of the UP-DILG agreement, which bars the conduct of police operations on campus without prior notice.