Duterte red-tags UP in response to Ateneans’ call for academic strike

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday accused the University of the Philippines (UP) of recruiting the youth into communist groups in response to calls for an academic strike from students of the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU).

“‘Yung mga eskwelahan, UP, fine. Maghinto kayo ng aral, I will stop the funding. Wala nang ginawa itong ano kundi mag-recruit ng mga komunista diyan,” he said in his weekly address.

However, it was Ateneans and not UP students who led calls for an academic strike to protest the government’s “criminally neglectful” typhoon and pandemic response. 

Over 500 Ateneans earlier pledged to “withhold the submission of any school requirements starting November 18, 2020 until the national government heeds the people’s demands for proper calamity aid and pandemic response.”

“You are taking the cudgels of the poor ahead of your time. That is not your worry, that is the worry of government,” Duterte said.

“I suggest to you, stop schooling until mabakunahan lahat ng Pilipino. You resume your duty and you wait for another typhoon and see if the help that we extend is enough to your satisfaction,” he added.

Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque previously warned Ateneans that they would fail their classes and not be able to graduate if they participated in the strike. 

UP Los Baños, for its part, had earlier denounced a “propaganda” video that linked its students to communist organizations. —LDF, GMA News