By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
I said last week that UPians should be proud of the school they came from as it was the first institution to come out and denounce the massive corruption in government projects. That is, however, just one side of the coin. For there is a lot of reasons also to be ashamed of the institution. The creativity of people partly due to the academic freedom and perhaps the expanse of its campuses and the variety of ways they are allowed to exercise their brains, a lot of them strayed too far beyond the nationalism, instead going to the opposite direction, towards selfish interests not to the broader considerations of society or the collective.
The biggest milestone in this country’s history was the declaration and maintenance of Martial Law. The architects and eforcers were from the same university. From there, the country went all downhill, for us to come full circle to the presidency of another Marcos.
Now, we are still reeling from the gargantuan corruption of pork barrel funds channeled to Janet Napoles who distributed them to senators to fund their projects in a very corrupt way. A number of them got convicted but some of the convictions were reversed on appeal. It was creativity in a very bad way. It is like approving the stealing of the people’s money in an official way. Many of them were UP graduates. They facilitated the outcomes as lawyers or influence peddlers. Did they not even ever learn what ethics meant?
So here we are again involving the same shameless people of the political kind.and their conspirators.
While every respectable university emphasizes honor as their main guiding light most of them actually are just paying lip service to the word. There is nothing honorable about exploiting their students to the hilt although it is easier countenanced among private schools than those state owned. For what to they really care if their graduates ended up being the leaders of corruption in pursuit of their self-interest– to just get rich as much as one can, and to hell with ethics, morals, and similar ideals. Even if such institutions were supposed to be religious.
To make even more money, they just pack their students like poultry in cramp buildings when the hard earned money they are siphoning from parents make them able to afford if they are wont to, to come up with a lot wider and more wholesome campuses conducive to a more rounded education. Whose graduates should not just be thinking of self-interests in the form of money, power, name and fame. In short, they should be more humanitarian instead of just being materialistic or worldly.
So as we head through uncharted waters by the force of the anger of the people to the massive corruption everywhere, the UP and other leading universities particularly those of the state should take a look at themselves, what kind of education are we imparting? Devoid of ethics and morals in gross disregard of the welfare of others?
That would be moving towards the opposite direction. Not towards progress but degradation. Literally, towards hell. So what use would have been the crosses and church bells that proudly adorn the buildings of religious schools and the “honor” and “excellence” as the vaunted principles every respectable academic institution proudly says are their end goals.
By the foregoing, all academic institutions should take stock of themselves and institute the necessary reforms. Or we might as well become a failed state.**
