ThePILLARS
ThePILLARS Publication JUNE 2018 - MAY 2019 ISSUE
The Official Student Publication of Ateneo de Naga University / VOL. LVII, ISSUE NO. 1 | June 2018 - May 2019 Member: College Editors Guild of the Philippines
EDITORIAL
Ateneo atop the hill
S
ocial inequalities and atrocities beleaguer the Ateneo—from community demolitions to political killings. Amidst a national context of economic crises and perverted democracy, Ateneo sits secluded atop its hill. Student apathy is hardly to blame, Ateneo’s history points to an active involvement in the nation’s struggles against tyranny. From Marcos’ dictatorship to Arroyo’s crackdown on progressive groups, Ateneans have been at the vanguard of Bicol’s student movement. Yet recently, there has been slack in Ateneo’s thrust for social justice despite what’s been brewing outside its gates. In San Rafael, Cararayan last 17 January 2019, 15 families have had their homes destroyed after almost 30 years of fighting against demolition attempts. The demolition’s success can be credited to the 50 policemen and several SWAT officers escorting the demolition team who snuck into the community while everyone was asleep. Meanwhile, with the execution of Memorandum Order No. 32 in full swing, military and police forces in select regions including Bicol, have been vastly increased. Directing the AFP, PNP, and DOJ to coordinate tactics, intelligence, and resources against those suspected of lawless violence has precipitated heightened political repression and human rights violations. Last June’s killings in Sorsogon of human rights workers Nelly Bagasala and Ryan Hubilla—a senior high school student, are merely the highlights of hundreds more of state-sponsored atrocities. The spate of political killings and intensified militarization of rural communities such as in Sorsogon and Masbate as a result of a
presidential memorandum are glaring indications of de facto martial law. During EDSA II, cocurricular orgs and even university offices marched in protest for the ouster of Joseph Estrada. Ateneo’s values ensconced in the Four Cs guides the Atenean to “advocate social changes that assist victims of injustice in gaining their rights.” But magis is rendered pointless when students are entrapped and socially dulled in the four corners of a classroom. That’s not to say that the spirit of activism has been extinguished, but the decline in extra-curricular activity after the K-12’s implementation— besides the education system itself—encourages apathy through the atomization of students, leaving many centered only on curricular affairs. What greeted the first batch of K-12 graduates was a weak extra-curricular environment. The empty booths during the previous Orgs’ Fests can attest to this. And with the isolating effects of a weak extra-curricular environment comes the lack of avenues for social discourse and thus an indifference to school and national politics. Organizations play a key role in collectivizing the student body and providing avenues of exposure to the realities beyond the theories of the classroom. But the two-year period from 2016 to 2017 without freshmen enrollees due to K-12 made significant blows to student organizations’ membership and budget. Consequently, orgs’ performance suffered, as well as
participation in interorganizational endeavors such as Pintakasi and the Ateneo Directorate of Student Organizations. Only now does there seem to be signs of natural but slow recovery of extra-curricular vigor. Of course, the university could have taken greater steps to aid student organizations instead of leaving them to adjust on their own. This would include promoting extra-curricular participation beyond the Orgs’ Fest such as in classes aided by the faculty and perhaps joint co-curricular activities. Another would be maximizing the activity period, which has been irregular in the previous semester. Certainly, student organizations—both cocurricular and extra-curricular, have the larger part to play in the restoration of a rich student ecosystem; one that not only cultivates scholastic and non-scholastic pursuits but also, as a collective body, actively partakes in the struggles of society and the oppressed through initiatives
that go well beyond the stakes within the university. Ateneo undeniably sits upon a hill of academic excellence and privilege, but this shouldn’t entail having students engrossed in an apathy-inducing environment and unschooled in social awareness. If Ateneo is to breed men and women for and with others, it should have an extra-curricular environment conducive to
Magis is rendered pointless when students are entrapped and socially dulled in the four corners of a classroom.
student solidarity and exposure to social realities. Militant involvement in the nation’s struggles is the prerequisite for a student movement with the fervor to challenge the current face of tyranny.