Best education comes from the streets, picket lines —La Viña

Governance and legal expert Tony La Viña on Thursday said he continues to encourage his students to attend rallies and be active in protests, and that he has done so for the last 38 years.

"The streets and the picket lines are where you get your best education, I tell them," he said.

La Viña, the former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, made the statement one day after the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs conducted a probe on the alleged disappearance of minors recruited by leftist organizations.

The committee's chair, Senator Bato dela Rosa, had told the press afterwards that he wants teachers who cancel their classes and encourage students to join protest rallies out of their job.

Tagging a report about the senator's remark, La Viña shared in a Facebook post how his participation in rallies and demonstrations over the years played a key role in his academic journey.

"For sure, I would not have done well in Ateneo de Manila, University of the Philippines College of Law, and Yale University if I have not participated in the 1978 noise barrage against the US-Marcos dictatorship, if I have not marched in Cagayan de Oro even before hundreds of soldiers with guns pointed at us to protest the fake lifting of martial law in 1981, if I did not join for more than 12 hours the funeral march of Ninoy Aquino in 1983 shouting Justice for Aquino, Justice for all, and many other occasions," La Viña said.

"So yes I encourage my students to join protests. I join many of them as well," he added.

The educator, however, clarified: "I do stop at not providing grade incentives for them to do so as that would be the wrong reason to join protests and because any protest action carries with it elements of risk." — MDM, GMA News