Mayor Joy Belmonte has assured all University of the Philippines faculty and students that the city government will support them in their fight to protect academic freedom in the state university.
“I was a lecturer at the UP before, and I know how important academic freedom is in an educational institution. True learning will only happen in an environment where there is a free discourse of ideas by all members of the community,” she said.
Quezon City is known as a bastion of higher learning, being host to many prestigious universities and colleges. “In Quezon City, academic freedom will always be protected and upheld,” Belmonte stressed.
Belmonte taught MA students at the University of the Philippines’s Archaeological Studies Program after completing her postgraduate degrees in Archaeology and Museum Studies in the United Kingdom.
For his part, the Executive Officer of the People’s Law Enforcement Board (PLEB), or the people’s court for erring policemen, vowed that any abusive conduct of policemen that may be done in the UP Campus will be dealt with accordingly.
“We pledge that disciplinary action awaits possible abusive conduct by policemen inside the UP Diliman campus. Please be reminded that we all live in a democracy where basic freedoms, including academic freedom, must be upheld,” said Atty. Rafael Calinisan, a UP Diliman alumnus.
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza