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This testimony was collected as part of the research project entitled “In the eye of the storm: Higher education in an age of crises” conducted by Howard Stevenson, Maria Antonietta Vega Castillo, Melanie Bhend, and Vasiliki-Eleni Selechopoulou for Education International. The research report and executive summary are available here.

Worlds of Education: To begin, can you tell us how academic freedom has evolved over time in the Philippines and what challenges you faced during the Duterte administration?

Higher education in the Philippines has gone through difficult times when academic freedom was under threat. Academics have been intimidated and victimised for undertaking their scholarly work, particularly during periods of martial law and attacks on human rights. The Duterte Presidency was a particularly challenging time.

After the lifting of martial law, our union and other groups worked to establish new regulations that prevented military personnel and the police from entering university campuses. One of Duterte’s early actions was to unilaterally dismantle these accords and reintroduce the risk of militarised actions in higher education institutions.

Books were routinely removed from libraries and state agents posed as students in classes in order to spy on staff. Some of our members were tagged online as terrorists because they had, as part of their teaching, discussed matters that some consider controversial. Social science materials were labelled subversive, and faculty who used them risked being accused of recruiting students into the rebel movement. These portrayals endangered the lives of our members.

The government initiated the profiling of ACT members, which was later exposed through leaked documents.

Worlds of Education: What is the situation now and how is your union working to protect academic freedom from future threats?

Risks still exist as the instruments of trade union and human rights violations are still in place. ACT continues to work to safeguard academic freedom of staff and union members.

A key step forward was the establishment of the Committee on Promotion and Protection of Academic Freedom and Human Rights at the University of the Philippines which was led by the Office of the Faculty Regent with significant involvement from our union. This initiative was a substantial success for the union but there is still much work to be done. At present, the University of the Philippines System is yet to fully adopt and set up the Committee across campuses of the University. We are also looking towards extending this initiative across all higher education institutions in the country.

Worlds of Education: In your experience, what was the most effective strategy in defence of academic freedom?

The key to our success was building strong alliances beyond the union to include students, academic groups, trade unions, and human rights groups.

A strong example of this alliance was the broad-based ‘Hands Off Our Teachers’ campaign that began as a coalition opposing the profiling of academic staff and has since become a sustained movement for academic freedom.

We also continue to work internationally, with the support of Education International and through organisations such as Scholars at Risk.