UP professors score Abad’s hecklers

MANILA, Philippines - Professors of the University of the Philippines’ School of Economics (UPSE) slammed the heckling of Budget Secretary Florencio Abad on Wednesday night, calling it a form of “violence” and “a blow to UP’s honor.”

Calling for sanctions, if deemed necessary, on students who participated in the assault, the professors slammed the protesters, a number of them UP students, for “hooliganism,” which they “celebrated” in mainstream and social media, “as it were some kind of victory.”

“This is not a victory but a blow to UP’s honor,” the professors said in a statement.

They said the protesters’ actions were an assault on the state university and violated decency and courtesy. 

Abad was leaving a forum held at the UPSE auditorium when he was blocked by the student protesters, who called him a “thief” for defending the government’s Disbursement Acceleration Program. The budget secretary was assaulted by the students, who threw crumpled sheets of paper and coins at him. 

“By participating in these events the protesters have declared themselves enemies, not of Secretary Abad, but of the university itself,” the professors said. 

They said that Abad, as an invited guest, was covered by “the same blanket of academic freedom and safe passage that the university guarantees to all who set foot on campus. The purpose of that high privilege is to guarantee a free traffic in diverse ideas – and of the diverse people who espouse them – which is the lifeblood of a liberal academic institution.”

The professors said that those who heckled Abad “sow apprehension and fear among bearers of contrary and unfashionable ideas, who would henceforth shy away from participating in the university, resulting in an impoverishment of intellectual life and a reduction of debate to a monologue among the already-converted.”

The professors called on those who participated in the protest to offer a public apology to Abad and to the state university.

They also urged UP authorities to move to identify those responsible for the violence and apply penalties, if necessary. 

They also called on university authorities to enhance the security provided to visitors invited to the Diliman campus to prevent a repeat of the incident.