student activism:
In today’s time when one hears the word, “Activist” they would think of those who protest in front of the Malacañang Palace making noise and vandalizing properties. Activism back in the past meant something more than what it is in the present.
The historic moment of student activism in the Philippines was during the regime of the late Ferdinand Marcos in which he declared Martial Law in the Philippines on September 21, 1972. Suppression in campuses and education were rampant during martial law, ordinary students were feeling it and thus lead them to take on mass action. On the Operasyon Tulong a relief operation for those who were victims of the Typhoon Didang, it was an eye opener for some students of the University of the Philippines (UP). They saw first-hand the poverty in large urban poor communities. What made the issue worst is the fencing of this communities by Imelda Marcos by hiding it to the public treating them as an eye sore. The military presence in UP has caused the students to take action by walking out of classes and one of the worse case is the tear gas incident in Mendiola as the police threw tear gasses at activist who gathered there, “making Mendiola quiet again.”
PUPians protesting inside the main campus regarding the revision of Student Hankbook and NPU Bill.
Photo by Rome Rex Medina.
THE HISTORY ON STIGMA AND MISCONCEPTIONS
Press freedom in the media and college level were oppressed, those who would oppose Marcos would go missing or be found dead the following day. Carlos (Charlie) Del Rosario was a student activist around the 1960’s with the ideas of a nationalist lead him as one the founders of the militant youth group Kabataang Makabayan (KM). As a young university professor at the Philippine College of Commerce (now Polytechnic University of the Philippines). He was the first recorded desaparecido of the Marcos regime, he was 27 years old at the time he went missing and was last seen on March 19, 1971. Many activists and journalists would be among the desaparecido or casualty of the Marcos regime, yet they continued to fight against the tyranny of Marcos. Protests, walkouts, and activist movements were rampant during martial law. The revolution would not be successful without the effort and action of the student activist. It is due to them that we are now experiencing the freedom that we have right now.
What has the student activists done with their protests? It is thanks to the student of activist in PUP that the tuition fee remained at the price of 12 pesos per unit. Their extreme movement of burning chairs that were not usable anymore signifies the lack of proper facilities and junk educational system in the university. It also correlates when a UP Manila student committed suicide due to the lack of money to pay the schools tuition and miscellaneous fee. In the present students of State Universities and Colleges (SUCS) are benefiting from the free education law, without the movement of student activist this law would have not been passed in the senate.
The controversial burning of unusable chairs in PUP main campus. Source: https://news.abs-cbn.com/image/nation/03/19/13/burning-school-property
In the present state of student activism in the Philippines, political and environmental activists are both protesting against the government. Activists calls the regime of Duterte as the resurgence of martial law. Casualties on the war against drug is rampant, extrajudicial killings are over the news every day, critics of the government are allegedly being silenced one way or another along with activists.
With the stigma on the student activists of PUP as a member of leftist groups or New People’s Army (NPA). The state of activism in PUP has turned into a dangerous position, being a student activist in PUP automatically labels the activist as a member of leftist groups and marks PUP as a recruiting center for NPA members. This is what student activists are facing in the present which is called, “Red Tagging.”
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