Editorial
Almost five decades ago, the College of Science proved that its wit and wisdom could serve as a powerful deterrent against malicious forces. In the age of Duterte’s de facto Martial Law, the college must once again serve as a tool to turn the tide in our worsening humanitarian, sociopolitical, and national crisis.
The idea of a politically involved College of Science is not new. In the days of the Diliman Commune, professors from the Physics Department created self-igniting molotov cocktails, while those from the Chemistry Department transformed huge LPG tanks into flame throwers as defensive weapons against military incursions into the university. Students and faculty manned the barricades of the Faculty Center, whereas others were broadcasting the events in the university from DZUP.
These paint the picture of a unified and politically involved College of Science during the Diliman Commune. The enemy was a dictator in the person of Ferdinand Marcos. UP professors and students had to unite against his administration’s pressing militarization in the campus and against the rising oil prices at the time.
A different era, a different administration. Yet the picture hasn’t changed.
Under Marcos’ Martial Law, the nation witnessed severe brutalities from state-led abductions leading to torture, rape, and murder upon murder of dissenters. Under Duterte’s leadership, this violence has emerged once again. Unresolved extrajudicial killings and human rights violations under Oplan Tokhang, Oplan Sauron, and Oplan Kapanatagan, all of these are state-sanctioned massacre-programs which led to the loss of thousands of lives under the hands of the AFP-PNP. The failure to deter the rising number of deaths hint at the breakdown of our institutions supposedly designed to serve as a check against grave abuses of the executive. The kowtowing of Congress and the Supreme Court to Duterte, along with the AFP-PNP’s brainwashing of students to subservience, enable this administration’s stifling of dissent from student activists, journalists, human rights advocates, environmental defenders, etc. Their silence on Duterte’s failure on promulgating his mandate of defending the West Philippine Sea against China in exchange for shady infrastructure deals goes to show that the executive has become too powerful and continues to be left unchecked.
Perhaps to further point out Duterte’s idolatry of Marcos, the copycat despot has also employed the use of online trolls to further consolidate his power. A 2017 Oxford study found that Duterte’s campaign spent around 10.5 million pesos in troll farms to create a false impression of support in social media. In fact, just this March, Facebook took down a network of pages, groups, and accounts intended to spread fake news in support of this administration. The troll network was found to be run by Nic Gabunada, the social media manager of the Duterte campaign.
Given this worsening political situation, where then can the College of Science situate itself?
As one of the country’s leading producers of scientists, the college naturally bears the responsibility to uphold a science that serves the people. Taking from its vast collection of knowledge and expertise, the college must assert a proactive stance on national issues through research and ensure that national policies are oriented into serving the interests of the wider masses and not of the oppressive elite. To do this, of course, necessitates our participation in community immersions with the urban poor, peasant farmers and fishermen, and the indigenous, so that we may understand the conditions in which they struggle in.
In the face of today’s creeping dictatorship, the college must once again remember its place in history as a powerful force against tyranny and one-man rule. The college and its constituents, the students, faculty, and staff, must be one with the UP community and civil society at large in the fight against the abuses of this administration. There is no other way; as bearers of truth and logic, these ever-intensifying attacks of the Duterte regime point to only one conclusion — that he and his cohorts must be pulled down from their perches and brought to the masses to face their crimes.
