EDITORIAL - Students and hooligans

The way students from the University of the Philippines and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines acted in protest against tuition fee increases, it is very easy to mistake them for hooligans and uneducated thugs.

By the same token, it is very difficult to sympathize with them, even if nobody disagrees that tuition fees are a burden. Issues, no matter how legitimate, can very easily take the backseat in face of behavior that has no place in civilized society.

How ironic that students enrolled in what has come to be known as some of the best institutions of learning in the country would involve themselves in unwarranted and unrestrained acts of violence and destruction of property.

When these ruffians attacked a school official with paintballs, barred regents from attending a meeting, and then put to the torch a number of chairs they hijacked from classrooms, they exhibited an appalling behavior totally out of synch with how people regard students.

For so long, scholars at state universities have received huge subsidies funded by the taxes of people, many of whom cannot even send their own children to decent schools, and this is the kind of behavior such subsidies produced?

These students are not unlike dogs who bite the hand that feeds them. Violence cannot by any stretch of the imagination be tolerated as a manifestation of academic freedom. If these students persist in such kind of behavior, maybe it is time to rethink funding their schools.

On the other hand, one cannot blame these hooligans entirely because they have apparently learned their lessons well from the bad examples set by leaders who take to the streets at the drop of a hat, who think shortcuts can replace due process, and are intolerant of other views.

Protests are sometimes necessary, but only after fair, honest and civilized discourse and dialogue have been resorted to and exhausted. But for these students, and the misguided leaders who wrongly inspired them, protest is the main thing. And the more violent it is, the better.