The Human Security Act is An Affront to the Right to Education
Letter to the Editor

With the impending passage of the Human Security Act of 2007, the Iskolars ng Bayan of the University of the Philippines have much to fear, not only insofar as their lives and liberties are concerned, but as well as the stifling of legitimate dissent and protest against the relentless tuition increases and commercialization schemes wracking the premiere state university and other state colleges and universities nationwide. Iskolars ng Bayan have been known to analyze issues not in a myopic fashion but comprehensively, such that issues on the rising costs of education and commercialization are viewed as intricately part of the long-standing policy of state abandonment of higher education, concretely articulated by the Long-Term Higher Education Development Plan being implemented by the Arroyo government. Thus, the Iskolars ng Bayan also pin the blame for the decreasing enrollment and stunted educational access to the policies of President Arroyo herself, whose seems to be more keen on producing graduates solely for human export and foreign consumption such as semi-skilled workers and call center agents instead of comprehensively developing the Philippine educational system that would produce graduates and intellectuals that would serve to develop the scientific and cultural capital of the country. Under the Human Security Act of 2007, can we now surmise that even these assertions of right and articulation of demands by the Iskolars ng Bayan shall be subsumed under the concept of terrorism? We have a legitimate fear that it shall, given the vagueness of the definition of terrorism under the HSA and the penchant of the Arroyo regime to classify all forms of dissent as unlawful, thereby crippling even the most legitimate of these kinds of exercises. Moreover, the Iskolars ng Bayan, particularly the UP Student Councils, have been known to valiantly stand not only on student issues but people's issues as well, such that the University of the Philippines has been a center of the people's defiance against President Arroyo when she forcefully implemented PP1017 in February 2006. The UP Student Councils have also stood in defense of urban poor dwellers in danger of demolition and displacement against a fascist MMDA, notwithstanding its repudiation and outrage over the unceasing urban militarization in Metro Manila and the relentless political killings around the country. Given all of these premises and the questionable provisions of the HSA, we have little doubt that even the UP Student Councils shall also be proscribed as terrorist organizations by the Human Security Act. It shall therefore come as no surprise that even the simplest articulation of legitimate student issues of commercialization and state abandonment of education will also be curtailed by state security forces in illegal pursuit of the Human Security Act.

Nonetheless, history has proven the militant resilience of the Iskolars ng Bayan. Under the darkest day of martial rule, the struggle of the Iskolars ng Bayan was able to re-establish the previously banned Student Councils and Publications and even force the establishment of the Office of the Student Regent, which now articulates the interests of the Iskolars ng Bayan in the highest policy-making body of the University of the Philippines. The struggle of the Iskolars ng Bayan against the HSA in the backdrop of unceasing commercialization may be difficult on its face, but we know for a fact that victory and history have always been on the side of those who resist and struggle in pursuit and exercise of their rights.

J.M. Terry L. Ridon
Student Regent
University of the Philippines