State U in Bukidnon Continues 
Crackdown vs Student Activists

Student leaders say that there have been efforts by the Central Mindanao University administration to harass and neutralize the militant and progressive organizations on campus. Underlying the CMU’s tumultuous relationship with its students, the farmers and the Lumads is the fact that the supposed state university is being run like a private enterprise.

BY ROLANDO PINSOY
Bulatlat.com Mindanao Bureau

MUSUAN, Bukidnon – For being “critical” and “leftist,” the new elected president of the student council of the largest state-run university in Northern Mindanao was barred by the university administration from assuming office – an act that highlighted the university’s repulsion toward student activism and, more importantly, the reasons behind it.

The student leaders of Central Mindanao University, a school that specializes in agricultural education, have been protesting the administration’s move against Maida Borbon, the 20-year-old education student who was elected student council president in April. They perceive a growing wariness by the administration toward student activism.

“The university president, Dr. Armando Lao, does not want me to be the council president and to sit in the Board of Regents because I am an identified activist,” Borbon said. The student council president is entitled to one vote in the Board of Regents on practically every decision-making by the board, including tuition increases.

“They know me as an activist. They know my position on certain issues. That’s probably why they are afraid of my victory,” she added.

The CMU students’ Commission on Election had proclaimed Borbon as winner. She had also taken oath before the outgoing officers of the council as well as before the school Comelec, as mandated by the student council constitution.

But Lao did not recognize her victory. Instead, the CMU president swore into office one of the losing candidates, Neil de la Cruz. De la Cruz is now recognized by the university administration as the student council president.

Enraged, Borbon’s supporters staged a silent protest and a picket outside the university gate. Six of those who joined the protest actions found themselves facing a five-day suspension for allegedly disrupting the classes. According to the administration, several students skipped their classes and joined the protest, hence the disruption.

Harass and neutralize

Student leaders claim that there have been efforts by the school administration to harass and neutralize the militant and progressive organizations on campus. Members of Anakbayan, Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, and Karatula are allegedly being “monitored” by the military’s Student Intelligence Network (SIN). 

The SIN, which is headquarted inside the campus, allegedly has come up with a checklist of identified members of these militant student groups. During a rally demanding the proclamation of Borbon, the SIN took pictures of the participants.

 “We are always subjected to harassments,” said Klitz Dave Dacup, a member of the progressive artist group Karatula, whose admission to the university, along with 18 others, was barred by Lao for their involvement in the protest action. Letters were sent to their parents stating that “their admission for the school year is subject to the university president’s prerogative if their parents will come and visit his office.” Lao allegedly intended to show to the parents the pictures of their protesting children.

In an interview with members of the local media, Lao was quoted as saying that “parents should be thankful that I invoked the parental rights of the school since the students are into meaningless activism.”

But Borbon said they remain steadfast in their struggle against what they call as curtailment of their academic freedom. “We will live up to the CMU’s rich history of student activism. We will not give up,” she said.

Afraid of activism

The administration may have reason to be afraid of student activism. After all, the university has had a tumultuous history, thanks to its questionable policies, which the students have opposed.

In fact, the day her supporters staged the protests, Borbon was in Manila at the office of the Commission on Higher Education Secretary Bro. Rolando Dizon, FSC. Dizon had also summoned de la Cruz. But Borbon told Bulatlat.com that there was no discussion on how to resolve the problem on the council presidency. Instead, she said, Dizon asked them not oppose the implementation of Presidential Proclamation 310.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Presidential Proclamation 310 on June 3 this year to segregate 670 hectares from the 3,080-hectare CMU property. The 670 hectares would be given to the Talaandig tribe, which has been fighting for their ancestral land within the CMU property.

While the students have not so far opposed the proclamation, the school faculty does – and the administration is worried that the students will support the faculty in its opposition. After all, the students and the teachers had united in previous protest actions, particularly in the ouster drive against two university presidents. In fact, Lao, CMU’s former vice president for academic affairs, assumed the school’s presidency precisely because of the ouster of one of them, Jaime Gellar.

The militant student organizations in this university are known to have been supportive of the struggle of the farmers and Talaandig tribe living inside the university’s 3,080 hectare property. If the Talaandig tribe is happy with Presidential Proclamation 310, the administration need not worry then.

Thus, the militant students are convinced that the reason for the harassment of students is mainly their activism, which few school administration, if at all, are comfortable with. “School administrations generally do not like militant student groups because they are the ones that expose corruption and suppression on campus,” Borbon said.

In any case, the struggle by the farmers and the Lumads in Musuan has turned CMU into a virtual garrison, militant students said.

In April 2001, a Talaandig, Jenny Alijan, was killed at the height of the mass action against the evictions of the Lumads from their ancestral land. Soon after, a military detachment was put up inside the campus, mainly to prevent the Lumads from getting inside the campus perimeter.

Since then, six-by-six military trucks would patrol the campus at nighttime. Aside from the military detachment, a police substation was erected at the university gate manned by 20 police officers.

The university has also employed 30 to 40 security guards, with additional 25 for Lao’s personal security. These security personnel have high-powered weapons, such as Armalites. A number of forest guards are also deployed on campus, armed with shotguns and carbine rifles.

Pressured by farmer organizations, local politicians and student groups, the university agreed to lease 200 hectares to the farmers for an annual rental of P4,000 per hectare in a five-year period until a relocation site will be provided for the farmers. Presidential Proclamation 310 also allowed the Talaandig tribe to settle inside the property, near the Musuan Peak.

Underlying the CMU’s tumultuous relationship with its students, the farmers and the Lumads is the fact that the supposed state university is being run like a private enterprise. In fact, the administration is earning so much from the rentals and use of university property.

The Bukidnon Sugar Company is renting 90 hectares of its land for P4,000 per hectare yearly. The Philippine Carabao Center also rents 50 hectares and a company called Philippine Rice is renting 500 hectares. A Taiwanese company is paying the university P12,000 per hectare per year for 200 hectares of irrigated farmlands. From 1999 to 2000, CMU’s Food Production and Agricultural Farm, which produces processed food and fruits, earned for the administration about P18 million. Bulatlat.com Mindanao Bureau

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