Malacañang clarifies remarks on protesting UP students, ‘lumad’

MANILA — Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. clarified President Rodrigo Duterte’s remarks to kick out protesting students of the University of the Philippines (UP) and replace them with bright lumad students.

Roque said it didn’t mean the president wanted to curtail their freedom of expression.

“Malinaw po ang sabi ni presidente, ang tinututulan niya iyong walkout sa klase. Hindi po niya sinusupil ang karapatan ng malayang pananalita at saka ng karapatan ng peaceful assembly, puwede pong gawin iyan ng mga estudyante, ang tinututulan niya iyong walkout [The president’s remark is clear; what he objects to is a walkout from class. He is not suppressing the right to free expression or peaceful assembly. Students may exercise that; he objects to their walking out from class],” Roque stressed.

As a former professor in UP, Roque recalled that in UP there was this so- called “maximum absence rule” that if a student breached the maximum 20 percent allowance, the student would be automatically “dropped from the rolls”.

“So ang sinasabi lang ng presidente, huwag naman natin sayangin iyong mga pera ng sambayanan na ginugol natin para sa free tuition ng lahat ng State Universities and Colleges [What the president is saying is, ‘let’s not waste the people’s money which was spent for free tuition in all SUCs],” Roque explained.