Not the narrowest target, just the easiest
Sure, let's hold students to standards we don't apply to grown-ass men in government
It is impressive in its own way how the The Daily Tribune took pains to discredit Jainno Bongon, the chair of the UP Los Baños Student Council.
Perhaps, and this is giving the biggest benefit of the doubt, the Tribune didn't bother to focus on Bongon's points because of how he talked on a television interview that the opinion writer watched.
Bongon, speaking on the termination of the accord between the University of the Philippines and the Department of Defense, offered "disorganized thoughts and sweeping generalizations, all of which drowned in his inability to speak in straight English or Pilipino, and in his constant stammering and stuttering," the Tribune said.
Possibly to much wringing of hands, The Tribune says: "If that is how UP students speak, drastic reforms are badly needed in the state university".
There is probably truth to that, and there may be a need to look into whether UP's General Education curriculum — now with fewer units, a development that many in the UP community resisted — is enough to teach students to prepare for things like being interviewed on TV.
RELATED: UP's new GE curriculum: Should Diliman make the shift?
But that is neither here nor there if we're talking about whether security forces should be allowed on campus without informing university officials of their operations.
What it is, is a not even subtle attempt to discredit UP's student leaders as the incompetent youths who don't know that they're talking about that the angry youth are often painted as.
And there lies the problem, isn’t it? We want the police and military to enter campuses to protect students from being, as the defense secretary says, inveigled by “communist fronts” because they can’t think for themselves while also holding students to standards that we don’t apply to actual grown-ass men in government.
If Bongon is inarticulate in a TV interview, the Tribune suggests, then his views are not worth listening to. After all, it argues, Bongon "is supposed to embody the best there is among UPLB students, and that his view represents the sentiments of the students there."
Of course, a leader who speaks well is more credible and UP’s student leaders should be (and generally are) articulate.
But it isn't easy to speak on television, even if, as most likely, the interview was done over Zoom. In fact, anyone who has ever presided over a meeting over Zoom knows how awkward it can be.
It is also possible that Bongon — who is, according to his Facebook page, from Albay province — is more articulate in Bikol, which is the primary language of the province and region and not English or Filipino (or "Pilipino", as The Tribune erroneously and ironically calls it).
We've certainly made bigger allowances for leaders who cannot speak well in either language.
The Tribune does raise valid points: That we should expect our leaders to speak well and that they, "having willingly joined the public discussion on an important public issue...[are] fair game for press criticism."
The press is supposed to be a watchdog and part of that function is holding our leaders to account, but how much power does a student council chairman really have that a national daily has to take up the cudgels for his campus constituency?
When the leader in question is a college student, The Tribune is neither fearless nor is it doing anyone any favors by punching down.
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* The Supreme Court is holding oral arguments next week on the Anti-Terrorism Act, a law questioned for possibly being too vague and prone to abuse and that petitioners say may violate the Constitution. Here’s a cheat sheet on the looming legal battle on the anti-terrorism law that we have been compiling since August 2020.
** From earlier this week, a look at how the pandemic has affected animal shelters. While the animals’ needs have increased — people have had to surrender or abandon pets they can no longer afford to keep — there are fewer volunteers because of travel restrictions and even fewer donations because of the economic downturn.
Pandemic bites animal shelters: More rescues, fewer helping hands, dwindling donations
*** On a more personal (but also still professional note), I will be working with the Consortium on Democracy and Disinformation on a weekly newsletter on disinformation. You might want to check out #FightDisinfo, which will come out on Friday mornings for the next few months.
**** If you aren’t yet, you may want to check out Geela Garcia’s work for Bulatlat.
She has been writing about farmers, fisherfolk and other marginalized communities and has an excellent piece on the rising cost of basic goods this week: Market vendors, like their buyers, cannot afford what they sell. She writes really well and deserves a read.