Published January 18, 2021 11:45pm The LFS characterized the abrogation as an attack on UP s status as a haven for free-thought and academic freedom for students and was a demonstration of the government s distorted sense of priorities given the more pressing concern of the COVID-19 pandemic. The progressive student organization argued further that the action taken by the national security establishment stemmed from the Anti-Terrorism Law, which was created to silence government critics and student-activists and had nothing to do with combating the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People s Army. The alleged recruitment of student leaders by the CPP-NPA was merely the excuse used to do away with the academic freedom of students whom the government had long been “red-tagging.”
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Romina Astudillo: Campus journalist turned union organizer
By JUSTIN UMALI
SANTA ROSA, Laguna – In 2016, Romina Astudillo proclaimed to the world, “I am here because we have a world to win.”
Sham, as friends and colleagues called her, lived by those words. At that time, she was the second nominee for Kabataan Party-list in the 2016 elections. Shortly after that, she helped organize trade unions around Metro Manila.
Last International Human Rights Day, December 10, elements of the Philippine National Police used a search warrant signed by Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 89 to raid the unit she was staying at. Police reportedly found firearms and explosives and promptly arrested her alongside two other trade union organizers.
Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem (Photo courtesy of AlterMidya)
Salem is an editor of alternative media Manila Today and a member of Tudla Productions. Both are among the members of AlterMidya Network.
Salem’s arrest came nine days after the entire network of AlterMidya was alleged as members of the Communist Party of the Philippines “propaganda machinery” by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Artmed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) executive director Allen Capuyan during the December 1 senate hearing of the Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification, and Reconciliation.
Aside from Salem, authorities also arrested six other persons for alleged possession of illegal firearms and explosives.