Militant students protest in front of QC Science High School

MANILA, Philippines - Militant protesters on Monday joined a group of high school students who trooped to the Quezon City Science High School to denounce attempts to suspend four of its students over an alleged damaging blog entry. A GMA Flash Report said the protesting high school students came from the Quirino High School and the Lagro High School, both public secondary schools in Quezon City. Members of militant groups Anakbayan and League of Filipino Students threw in their support and joined in the protest against what the groups called “campus repression." Anakbayan chairperson Ken Ramos insisted that criticizing government officials and government policies are a legitimate and common practice on the Internet. "The students' blogs have simply raised legitimate complaints of QSCHS Administration intimidation and corruption, among other issues," Ramos said in a statement. Last week, school officials from the QCSHS ordered a 10-day suspension of four students who posted a blog entry reportedly criticizing their school principal. The suspension order was approved by the Quezon City Schools Division. However, the Department of Education immediately stepped in and overturned the suspension order, pending its own investigation into the controversy. Ramos said the four students could have escaped the suspension but that does not mean their “fight" is over. The Anakbayan leader said DepEd officials should verify the claims of the students in their blog entry about their school principal. "QCSHS Principal Zenaida Sadsad should be the one suspended and investigated, not the students… Ms. Sadsad displayed sheer abuse of authority by giving out a suspension order," Ramos said. Education Undersecretary Franklin Sunga said the probe has to be completed first before the DepEd could make further moves, stressing that the incident has implications on a student’s freedom of expression. "The decision of DepEd on this is very important. We know for a fact that students nowadays use blogs to express their sentiments. If we are going to regulate this, how far are we going to regulate it?" he earlier said. The College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) earlier threatened to hurl charges before the DepEd and Congress against the QCSHS officials for suspending the four students. CEGP national president Vijae Alquisola said that school institutions should in fact encourage students to maintain a blog instead of punishing them for putting criticisms on it. - Mark Merueñas, GMANews.TV