They, after all, are “so tapang” to “make sabi (their) stand on (the reproductive health bill).”
Believe it or not, these are real excerpts.
As some students of three of the country’s Catholic universities battled it out in the online world following a controversial editorial published in the University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) school organ The Varsitarian, a blogger has taken advantage of the ongoing tension, and has recently come out with a post that has earned quite a following among Internet users.
Jules Vitriolo, executive director of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the agency was implementing a hands-off approach to the incident as of press time.
According to him, anyone was within the bounds of free speech guaranteed in the Constitution.
The writer or writers of The Varsitarian, in particular, he said, was within his right to express how he feels.
He emphasized that the CHEd came in only in “academic” matters.
In an editorial on Sept. 30, The Varsitarian slammed professors of Ateneo de Manila University and De La Salle University for supposedly supporting the controversial RH bill, calling them “intellectual pretenders and interlopers.”
The editorial, titled “RH bill, Ateneo, and La Salle: Of Lemons and Cowards,” has gone viral in social media, drawing various reactions from netizens.
The editorial said that since Catholic universities existed for evangelical purposes, the 192 Ateneo and the 45 La Salle University professors who declared support for the RH bill should resign to show conviction.
“But alas, it seems intellectual honesty and moral conviction are in such short supply in Katipunan, Quezon City, and Taft Avenue, Manila,” the article said.
‘Conyo English’
The blog post, published on https://sankagesteno.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/ateneo-la-salle-profs-are-like-so-not-duwag/, scored the writer (or writers) of The Varsitarian’s editorial in a mixture of English and Filipino, an apparent spoof of the “conyo English” that several people say is used by most of the affluent students of La Salle and Ateneo.
The post was written by one snap2104. It was unclear whether the blogger was a student of any of the three universities.
“The nerve of other schools to make paratang to our beloved profs, calling them names like ‘coward’ and ‘papansin.’ It’s so nakaka-irritate! Like super! (The nerve of other schools to accuse our beloved profs, calling them names like ‘coward’ and ‘attention-seekers.’ It’s so irritating! Like super!),” the post said.
According to snap2104, the labels were unnecessary since the Ateneo and La Salle professors who expressed their support for the RH bill on Aug. 13 and Sept. 3, respectively, “ma(d)e tayo nga for what they believe in (stood up for what they believe in)” despite “a huge potential that (their) employers will make sipa (them) out of the school (a huge potential that their employers will kick them out of the school).”
“And you call them duwag? Are you kidding me? (And you call them cowards?),” the blogger asked.
Despite the criticisms, the blogger said he agreed with The Varsitarian on one thing.
Borrowing a line from the editorial, snap2104 said, “It takes guts to be a Catholic nowadays.”
Stands by editorial
Reached by phone Tuesday, The Varsitarian faculty adviser Lito Zulueta—arts and books editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer—referred an Inquirer reporter to a statement from the editorial board of the school paper.
The statement said: “The Varsitarian comes up with editorial positions in the same manner as news organizations like yours do. Editorial judgment and prerogatives rest with the Editorial Board. Editorials reflect the stand of the newspaper and as such, do not carry bylines. Needless to say, The Varsitarian is editorially independent of the UST administration.”
In an earlier phone interview over the television program “Saksi,” Zulueta said of The Varsitarian editorial: “The editorial position is put vehemently, I must admit. Siguro (Maybe) un-Christian, yes, we admit,” he said.
Zulueta also said on the TV program that “vehement speech is a very grave speech … We admit that, and we apologize for that.”
Reached by the Inquirer, Zulueta denied apologizing for the content of The Varsitarian editorial and said, “Our editorial stands.”
Antonio Contreras, a political science professor at De La Salle University and a supporter of the RH bill, acknowledged the right of the writer or writers of The Varsitarian editorial to express their opinions.
But Contreras took offense at the name-calling that was made.
“I hope they don’t call us insulting names. That was what was unacceptable in the statement—that we were treated as if we were dishonest intellectually,” he said in Filipino.
“But it’s their right. Let them say that. This country is free,” he said
Also on Tuesday, the UST administration, in a statement e-mailed to the Inquirer, supported The Varsitarian in its stand against the RH bill. But it disowned a part of its editorial that said the Ateneo and La Salle professors were “intellectual pretenders and interlopers.”
The statement said the UST administration “does not impose its will nor exercise prior restraint on the opinions of the school paper’s writers nor the manner by which they are expressed.”
It added: “We remain united in Christ with the Ateneo de Manila University, the De La Salle University and the other universities in our mission to promote Catholic education and to form students to become living testaments to the teachings of Christ and the principles we hold sacred—competence, commitment and compassion.”