(Due to its timeliness, we yield this space to the statement of the Citizens’ Alliance for Just Peace. – Ed._
THE NATIONAL Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) campaign has taken the insidious form of pressing the administrations of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) to ban certain so-called subversive books from their libraries.
As peace advocates and civil libertarians, we decry and denounce this latest assault on freedom of thought, unshackled academic inquiry, and the quest for a just and lasting peace. The banned books are reported to be those related to the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) containing such materials as the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) as well as political essays by the NDFP’s Chief Political Consultant, Prof. Jose Ma. Sison.
So far, three SUCs – Kalin ga SU, Isabela SU and Aklan SU – have reportedly succumbed to the NTF-ELCAC’s campaign to demonize the NDFP and its allied organizations, the CPP and NPA, by removing said books from their libraries and turning them over to the National Intelligence Coordination Agency, drawing significant public attention to this disgraceful act. In contrast, the University of the Philippines-Visayas made clear that they will not remove books, as a university’s task is to train and sharpen the minds of students through exposure to a wide latitude of ideas.
Such efforts to ban books are straight from the authoritarian playbook, calling to mind the banning, once upon a time, of Jose Rizal’s political novels as being anti-cleric. In the guise of “protecting youth and students from being deceived and recruited by communists”, the NTF-ELCAC is actually stifling critical thought and open-minded study into the socio-economic roots of armed conflict. Just when this divided nation needs to grow the next generation of peace builders instead of warmongers, school administrations are lured into agreeing to outright censorship and thought control.
Institutions of higher education should embrace the well-established precept that freedom of thought and belief is the very foundation of a healthy and viable democracy. However unpalatable a certain political viewpoint or philosophy may be to the current administration, this does not justify that they be expunged from our history as a people and dynamism as a nation. Students should be encouraged to study and understand various political views without fear of harassment or reprisal. University libraries are a proper repository for diverse and divergent books.
Universities should be a bulwark of free thought and expression and contribute to upholding and safeguarding human rights. We urge universities and other academic institutions to resist the sowing of fear and ignorance. Rather, they should promote a deeper understanding of what ails society, breeds social unrest and fuels armed conflict, and consequently, what will lead to freedom, social justice, genuine development and a just peace.
