While reminiscing about his time at his alma mater, the Ateneo de Manila University, during the martial law era, President Benigno Aquino III on Friday said the militant League of Filipino Students (LFS) was as much a dictatorship as the one outside the campus.
Because of this, Mr. Aquino said Ateneo student leaders unanimously rejected being part of the LFS when it was being organized at the university.
The President said he was among those being invited to become a founding member of the LFS, which today is one of the largest and most active militant youth organizations in the country.
“We all had qualms. Was it right to submit to what they call an executive committee? There was already a dictatorship outside the university and yet we are going to join an organization that will dictate to us what we will do,” he said in remarks at the investiture on Thursday night of Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin as the Ateneo’s 30th president.
Mr. Aquino, who graduated from the Ateneo with a degree in economics in 1981 and had spent his entire college years under the martial law regime of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, brought up the incident with the LFS as an example of how the Ateneo molded students like him.
He said that after the matter was put to a vote, the Ateneo student leaders were unanimous in their decision not to join the LFS.
“We didn’t know each other but we we’re really molded by the Ateneo to really have one perspective and really have a correct definition and agree on how to explain what is good, what is right for our fellow students,” Mr. Aquino said.
“This is where I was able to prove that as far as principle is concerned Father Jett and I are on the same page,” he added.
The President recalled how much the Ateneo was affected by the oppressiveness of the dictatorship.