By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Students of the University of the Philippines are called Iskolar ng bayan. It should actually apply to all students of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs- more than 105 of them), since their tuition fees are all subsidized by the national government.
But when you say that name, it is a student of U.P., supposed to be the premier university of the land. That was coined sometime in the 1970’s, and everyone was so proud to be called such. In a way, it was an acknowledgment of one’s scholastic preeminence.
Somehow, the esteem associated with it gradually eroded through the years. Why? Other schools improved the quality of their educational standards and began consistently producing board/bar topnotchers resulting to a better credibility perception of the schools. Many U.P. students were no longer focused on the good perspective of equipping himself/herself with tools to make his/her life, and those of others better for the future. They have gradually absorbed from others, a radicalized life that is supposed to help the poor and the disadvantaged get a better deal in life. Little did they know that they are already being led into a sea of discontent that only a revolution can change. Along the way, brute measures to attain it became the order of the day for them.
Many in U.P. itself, thought that the university is the bastion of critical/independent thinking, brandishing academic freedom as their tool. They can teach anything, even the idea of toppling a duly constituted government thru violent means. Jose Ma. Sison and Nur Misuari are very good examples of U.P. teachers who took advantage of this. Many of their ilk are still manning the fort in the school. They sow the seeds not only of critical thinking but also of greedy discontent.
From erudite, critically-thinking students, many of them slid into the dismal valley of uncouth behavior because of the above.
I know this because I was a Iskolar ng bayan myself. And I was proud of it. Now, I feel discomfited by what happened when the latest selection of chancellor for U.P. Diliman was held last April 3, 2023.
There were three contenders for the position: Dr. Fidel Nemenzo, the current UPD chancellor, Dr. Victor Paz, a renowned archaeology professor, and Atty Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan II, current College of Law dean (2021-2024). The first 2 were holding the highest professor ranks in U.P. (Prof 12, and Prof 11 respectively) while Vistan has the lowest academic rank of Assistant Professor, and he was also the only one who has no doctorate degree.
Vistan was selected over the other much more senior than him, eliciting protests from 19 prof emeritus (retired, above 65 years old), and 27 regular professors. Among others, they contended that all the three highest current officials of U.P. are not doctorate degree holders. The professors have all the right to question the results but they should accept the decision of the Board, if proper procedure was diligently observed. Since when anyway, should a more senior official be the priority in designated positions? Even the officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines are not violently reacting to a junior being selected over a senior as the head of a major branch. After all, a student can be much better than his/her professor.
Members of the U.P. Board of Regents are mostly, if not all, U.P. graduates. Questioning their decision is akin to questioning why you are in that school. They are not incompetent, not simpletons. They studied and analyzed the situation, the capabilities of the nominees. Two of the members of the BOR are Baguio congressman, Mark Go and senator Chiz Escudero, as head of the education committee of the Lower House and the Senate respectively. Both are U.P. graduates. So, what’s the question about their decision?
What is disconcerting and utterly embarrassing were the actions of some U.P. Diliman students, as they protested. They acted like street thugs when the result of the selection was announced by U.P. President Atty. Angelo Jimenez, himself becoming the university President only last Feb., this year.
In videos released in the social media, the students are seen storming Quezon Hall, where the BOR meeting was supposed to be held, hammering its door repeatedly using a foldable ladder. They were shouting as they were doing it. They were like out-of-school kids who were looking for “adventures”. They were like loose cannons, unbecoming of Iskolar ng bayan. Disgusting.
They were clearly saying in other videos, “Magpaliwanag ka BOR. Magpaliwanag ka habang wala ka pang sasakyan.” That was a serious charge of corruption.
They even vandalized the building by spray-painting it. Thoroughly an embarrassing behavior of supposed model students of critical thinking. They are now model of anarchy, of lawlessness. They definitely tarnished U.P.’s integrity, respectability.
That behavior was the legacy of Joma Sison, intoned by some who I was talking to. Disrespect everything not in accordance to their avowed but already obsolete type of communist ideology. The students wanted Nemenzo, a leftist, to have his second term as chancellor because he sees the same color as them; always very sympathetic to their cause.
The students, and probably most of the protesting professors were the same people who put Joma Sison in a pedestal during a program at the school grounds when Sison died, in a program solely dedicated to him. They are impervious, and conveniently glossed over documented atrocities, mainly instigated by him.
While still relatively young, Chancellor-elect Vistan appear to be actually the most rounded among the three nominees, in terms of experience and training. Just read their resumes. He even had a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, graduating as a cum laude before completing his law degree, also as a cum laude, both in U.P. This clothed him with credibility and respectability to discuss some developmental aspects in agriculture. He even had a paper dealing with Bt talong, genetically modified variety.
Activism is necessary, when something improper was done or is to be done. Hooliganism, as exhibited by those Iskolar ng bayan in Diliman has definitely no place in activism. Continue to do such and you will become a disgrace to your school and to your community.
Fortunately, those students who protested like beasts constitute only a very minute percentage of the student population of U.P.
