Government Intervention on Student Activism in Philippine Universities: A Legal and Philosophical Synthesis

Abstract

In January 2021, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, issued a statement that 18 universities in the Philippines, including Far Eastern University, De La Salle University, University of Santo Tomas, and Ateneo de Manila University – serve as recruiting grounds by the legal fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines for the New People’s Army. In response to this, a joint statement was made reaffirming the universities’ commitment to defend democracy and nation-building, further reminding the government that autonomy and independence from the state must nonetheless be retained. Such conceptual discordance leads to issues that give rise to three philosophical endeavors, to wit: first, a pedagogical determination of the role of education as a vital catalyst of stability and change in contemporary times; second, a resolution of the possible human rights conflict between individual/ institutional academic freedom and the constitutional mandate of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to secure the integrity of the national territory; and third, a re-evaluation of the notion of academic activism and its relevance/ danger to the citizen’s adherence to the provisions of the Philippine Constitution. This paper will provide a commentary utilizing the philosophies of Habermas, Rawls, and Gewirth to serve as a guiding light in clarifying the intricate interplay between moral rights and duties in both education and law enforcement.

Keywords

• Student Activism
• Constitutional Law
• Communist Recruitment
• Conflict Resolution
• academic freedom