DBM Sec. Butch Abad INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Budget Secretary Florencio Abad saw two sides of the “Iskolar ng Bayan” Wednesday night: Minutes after he engaged a campus audience in fiscal discourse, another group pelted him with balled-up paper and tried to grab him by the collar.
The day after, Malacañang condemned the incident while Abad recounted the “violence and aggression” that greeted him after speaking at a student forum at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City.
The Cabinet official had just delivered a talk on the national budget process in a forum hosted by the UP Student Council at the School of Economics building, when his exit proved anything but smooth.
Members of a UP-based student organization protesting the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program had been waiting for him to come out—and they were not in the mood for an extended Q & A.
“When I was preparing to leave the venue through the rear exit, a mob outside the auditorium had already formed and was advancing towards me and my staff. We quickly conferred with the student council members on how I could make a safe and careful exit from the venue,” Abad recalled in a statement on Thursday.
“At the same time, the student council informed us of the possibility that (members of) Stand UP might ask me some questions once I stepped out. I said I was prepared to address their concerns,” he added.
“Once I began approaching the Stand UP group, however, the protesters—who were around 50 to 60 strong—did not engage me in dialogue. Instead, they surrounded me aggressively as I made my way toward the vehicle. I had objects thrown at me, and one student even attempted to grab me by the collar.”
Stand UP stands for Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP. The group’s Facebook page describes it as “the largest militant and nationalist alliance in UP Diliman.”
According to Abad, he gladly accepted the student council’s invitation to Wednesday’s affair since he earlier graced a similar forum in UP that “proved very fruitful.”
“I also wanted to take the opportunity to reach out to the students of UP Diliman, especially since they’ve taken a very active role in demanding better governance from the Philippine bureaucracy.”
“I expected that a discussion on the national budget in such a venue would make for an interesting and lively exchange. By sharing insights and trading ideas with the UP student body, I knew that we could work collectively so that the national budget could be more effective in serving the public,” he added.
“The behavior that Stand UP showed was therefore very disappointing,” he said. “Ideally, we should be able to engage each other in frank, sober discourse. I wholly understand that fighting for the welfare of our country is often an emotional and passionate pursuit. But there is no place here for violence and aggression, and especially not in an academic environment.”
“All that a mob wants is to harm its target, never mind truth or propriety; beyond that, it stands for nothing else,” he said of Stand UP.
At a Palace briefing, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said “violence and threats should not have a place in our society. It is difficult to discuss if (people) only shout and do not listen (to one another).”
“I understand that someone grabbed the back of the collar of Secretary Abad and that some of them threw paper at his face. These kinds of acts have no place in a public discourse,” she stressed.
Abad was also pelted with coins and the collar-grabbing incident happened as he was getting into his car, according to other accounts gathered by the Inquirer. The protesters were also heard shouting: “This is for the people you had robbed!” and “Junk (President) Aquino’s pork barrel!”
“Thankfully, a lot of the students who participated (in the forum) listened to Secretary Abad, which is really the essence of the dialogue. They get to ask questions; there is a presentation; they get their answers,” Valte said. With a report from Erika Sauler