The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Tuesday, Nov. 2, urged higher education institutions (HEIs) nationwide to respect the decision of other universities and colleges when it comes to the “exercise of academic freedom.”
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman J. Prospero De Vera III issued a statement following the statement of University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman officials on State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) who took out alleged Communist-Terrorist Groups (CTGs) materials from their libraries.
“The decision to remove books and other reading materials in a university library is done by individual higher education institutions (HEIs) in the exercise of academic freedom,” De Vera said.
De Vera noted that “there are reasons” why some HEIs have decided to remove materials donated by government-declared CTGs in their libraries.
“School authorities in these HEIs are in the best position to explain why,” De Vera said. “They are given sufficient administrative discretions under existing laws,” he added.
Three state universities including Kalinga State University, Isabela State University, and Aklan State University pulled out reading materials from their libraries and turned these over to the regional National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and/or the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.
UP’s stand
In a statement issued by Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND) on Oct. 31, the group noted that the UP Diliman Chancellor and the UP library vowed to “stand against book censorship.”
In particular, CONTEND said that UP Diliman Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo - during a forum on book censorship and academic freedom on Oct. 29 - “strongly condemned attempts” by the military and the NTF-ELCAC to remove books that are deemed “subversive” from the libraries of universities and colleges in different parts of the country.
CONTEND also alleged the latest “attempts to clampdown on academic freedom” with the CHED in the Cordillera Administrative Region issuing regional memo nos. 113, series of 2021 calling on all universities and colleges to surrender so-called “subversive” books and materials to authorities.
Nemenzo, CONTEND said, described the removal of books and readings as a “form of censorship, violence, and repression of ideas.”
CONTEND also cited former UP Faculty Regent Ramon Guillermo who said the “military intrusion” on libraries is a “concrete example of the intensifying attacks on academic freedom under the Duterte administration.” He also compared this state forces “repressing feelings and ideas” that are not acceptable to those in power.
UP Diliman Head Librarian Elvira Lapuz, on the other hand, called on librarians --- especially in smaller state universities -- to “stand their ground against attacks on freedom of information and academic freedom.”
CONTEND alleged that since September 2021, “books relating to the peace talks and other writings by revolutionaries have been removed” from various the libraries nationwide.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2021/11/01/up-diliman-execs-condemn-removal-of-subversive-books-from-university-libraries/
Mutual respect
However, De Vera noted HEIs should respect the decisions of other HEIs in the “spirit of mutual respect and proper governance” of respective institutions.
“I know that there are many HEIs who are critical of the policies adopted by the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman officials and the way they run their campus but they are not issuing statements out of mutual respect for the governance of individual public universities,” De Vera said.
Given this, De Vera urged UP Diliman officials to “do the same.”
De Vera also said that it would be best for UP Diliman officials to be “more prudent, circumspect, respectful and discerning in issuing statements” --- especially involving the exercise of academic freedom of other HEIs