Let them wear black at game, says Palace

Malacañang yesterday shrugged off the call for students of De La Salle University and Ateneo de Manila University to wear black to their much-anticipated basketball match-up today in protest of the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs.

Students and alumni of Ateneo and La Salle can wear whatever color shirt (or armed band) they like, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said yesterday.

But, Andanar said, the students of the two universities should also “take the same passion in using their quality education to contribute to President Duterte’s war on illegal drugs.”

‘Feel free’

Andanar told Ateneo president Fr. Jose Ramon T. Villarin, SJ, to “feel free” to call on their students and alumni attending the Ateneo-La Salle game to make a political statement by wearing black (T-shirts or arm bands) instead of the university’s color (blue) “to express solidarity with the victims of human rights violations and with all others struggling to uphold human rights in the country.”

La Salle has also asked its community to wear black instead of their usual green for the big game.

“We live in a democracy where everyone is entitled to give an opinion, air his grievance or voice his solidarity or disagreement with the government as long as the means used is peaceful, legal and constitutional.  As we learned in our classes, ‘I do not agree with what you to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it’,” said Andanar, a former TV and radio anchor.

Marcos burial, too

Villarin made the call due to the “considerable amount of sentiments and convictions already expressed by various sectors of both the Ateneo and La Salle university communities in opposition to the growing number of extrajudicial killings or summary executions in the country and the possible Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani.”

Mr. Duterte has agreed to allow the transfer of the remains of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to the cemetery for heroes but this was blocked by a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Duterte has also brashly defended the high body count and lack of due process in his all-out war on drugs as the only way to stop what he has repeatedly claimed was the country’s inevitable slide into a narco-political state.