ADDU students walk out to demand accountability for corruption
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 September) — Students of the Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU) walked out of their classes on Tuesday to express their outrage over massive and widespread government corruption, and to demand accountability from politicians and public officials linked to the controversial flood control projects.
During the rally, Fr. Karel San Juan, university president, said the school management supports the students’ academic walkout, expressing pride in their courage to demand accountability for the systemic corruption in the country and to denounce people “who are insensitive and numbed to the suffering of the poor.”
“This mobilization shows your opposition and anger towards corruption. This mobilization manifests your disgust towards people who use power for limitless greed, going by millions, billions, trillions. This mobilization means many things; it means that you detest politics and governance that betray public trust,” San Juan said
“Ikulong na yang mga kurakot” (jail the corrupt), filled the university grounds as disgruntled students, along with teaching and non-teaching personnel, gathered around 2:00 p.m. at the ADDU’s Sunken Garden before marching outside the campus along Roxas Avenue. (MindaNews photo by ANTONIO L. COLINA IV)
Chants such as “Ateneo! Ateneo! Down from the hill to the streets, to the streets” and “jail the corrupt” reverberated throughout the university grounds as disgruntled students, along with teaching and non-teaching personnel, gathered around 2 p.m. at the ADDU’s Sunken Garden before marching outside the campus along Roxas Avenue.
The rally took place on Tuesday following the Senate Blue Ribbon Panel’s investigation into anomalous flood control projects and two days after the “Baha sa Luneta” and “Trillion March against Corruption” rallies in Metro Manila and other parts of the country including Davao City.
“It means that you denounce, you reject, you abhor this greed, this malice, this brazen dishonesty, this rampant lying, and cover-ups, this pure evil in the hearts and minds of these people,” he said.
San Juan added that the corruption resulted in substandard infrastructure projects, risking the lives and well-being of people.
The university official said that Tuesday’s rally demonstrated the collective stand for “honesty and integrity” of the students who denounce “systematic manipulation and stealing” as well as the institutionalized collusion among the corrupt for this “very bad culture of patronage politics.”
Reza Baneke, a second-year anthropology student, said she joined Tuesday’s walkout not just to call out the officials involved in corruption but also those in power who fail to do their job of making the country better.
“I believe that as Atenean, it is our role and it is our position to call out the corrupt, not just the corrupt, but all those who fail to do their job to make the nation better,” she said.
Atty. Romeo Cabarde, of the Ateneo Public Legal Assistance, said the walkout was not “to drop out but to call out.”
“This is not cutting class, this is standing up for class, the class of ordinary Filipinos who are robbed blindly by corruption. What we are doing today is not a class suspension. This is not a break from lessons; this is the very lesson we have today, the street is our classroom of democracy,” he said.
Cabarde added that “corruption should end, restore dignity to the government, and hold the plunderers accountable.”
“History shows, when students walk out, society listens, and today we’re loud, we’re clear, and we’re extra. Floods may drown our streets, but corruption must not drown our spirit,” he said.
Outside the seven-floor Finster Hall building along Roxas Avenue, a huge banner about three-floor length, was installed shortly before the students’ walkout, declaring the university’s statement: “Fight for Truth, Jail the Corrupt, Restore Integrity.” (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
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