Palace urged: Stop Cotabato school standoff

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines – Students and various academic organizations in the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) in Kabacan town here are seeking President Aquino’s intervention on the six-month standoff between their school president and groups demanding his ouster.

Accusing him of abusing power and embezzling school funds, protesters pushing the relief of USM president Jesus Antonio Derije have again been picketing at the main gate of the university since last week, preventing students from entering the campus.

Some of the picketers wore black ski masks and dark glasses, according to the Kabacan police.

“These actions are detrimental to the welfare of our students and teachers,” lamented Antonio Tacardon, USM vice president for student affairs.

Derije has been out of office since early this year due to the controversy and the presence of dozens of protesters, armed with clubs, stones and machetes, apparently aimed at stopping him from entering the campus to report for work.

Derije tried twice to enter the USM campus, sparking trouble between the protesters and his security escorts, leaving some of them injured.

Tacardon said they opened a small emergency gate at the back of the USM campus, but most of their students remain reluctant to come in due to threats from the picketers.

Students even showed reporters cell phone footages of their fellow students climbing over the school’s circumferential fence just to get through and attend classes.

“Malacañang should now come in and intervene. We are no longer safe in school and our schooling is being hampered by this crisis,” said an 18-year-old student, who asked to be identified only as Fatima.

Tacardon said the security situation at the USM is getting worse with the continuing presence of the picketers at the main gate.

A leader of the protesting group, Raffy Tadeo, told Catholic radio station dxND in Kidapawan City that they want the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to relieve Derije to enable university officials to freely choose a new president.

Tacardon said Tadeo claims to be member of the USM faculty but is not even listed in the university’s roster of academic and technical personnel.

“Why should an outsider meddle in the affairs of the university? This person is pathetic. There are people in the group picketing at the USM gate who are not employees of the university,” Tacardon said.

Parents of USM students are ranting on the inability of the Kabacan police and the mayor’s office, supposedly empowered to address the problem by the Local Government Code, to clear the USM gates of picketers.

“It’s no longer safe for our children to stay in the campus and its immediate surroundings. CHED is already aware of the situation, but is surprisingly silent about it,” Abdul Masla said.