Of student affairs and student rights: Explaining the case of UST-OSA and TomasinoWeb

By Atty. Josiah David Quising

From a simple photograph of students in front of 7/11 to now a full-blown administrative case, the recent controversy between Tomasinoweb and UST Office of Student Affairs Directors Maria Tio Cuison and Maria Regina Arriero exposes the difficulties student leaders face in the university. According to the complaint filed by former TomasinoWeb Leo Laparan II before the UST Vice Rector, the campus digital news organization faced several instances of groundless censorships perpetrated by the OSA directors.

We believe that what these directors have done do not reflect UST values.

Drafting the complaint as Mr. Laparan’s legal counsel, we have identified six grounds for the administrative complaint, ranging from violations of UST internal rules and collective bargaining agreement, Philippine laws, and principles upheld by the Vatican (Holy See).

Censorship has no place in UST and this is upheld by the USTFU-CBA (Section 7.1) and the UST General Statutes (Article 1.3) where academic freedom of faculty members are to be respected. The OSA directors should have respected the expertise of  Mr. Laparan and his prerogatives as faculty adviser of Tomasinoweb. Without clear violations of UST rules, Tio Cuison and Arriero do not have the right to dictate on the operations of Tomasinoweb.

The UST Student Handbook (PPS1028 (2.f)) itself provides that investigation should be commenced before sanctions may be imposed on recognized student organizations. As per Mr. Laparan, the directors repeatedly threatened Tomasinoweb with sanctions sans any proper proceeding if they do not take down posts that they do not like, forcing students to succumb.

The actions of Tio Cuison and Arriero also go beyond violating UST rules as it went against Philippine laws.

Section 7 of the Education Act guarantees the rights of students including their right to publish, right to free expression of opinions, and right to form organizations. Section 17 of the Education Act also mandates that school administrators, such as Tio Cuison and Arriero, must maintain a healthy school atmosphere conducive to the preservation of academic freedom as well as to maintain professional behavior in dealing with faculty and students and to observe due process.

The freedom of student journalists are also well-protected in our laws. The Campus Journalism Act recognizes the freedom of the press even at the campus level and prohibits the expulsion or suspension of students solely on the basis of the articles the student has written. This prevents school administrators from controlling campus publications.

Even the Supreme Court itself recognizes the rights of students to free speech. The Supreme Court has clarified several times that students do not “shed their constitutionally protected rights at the school gate”, in short – the rights UST students have as Filipinos remain even when enrolled in a private university such as UST.

Aside from Philippine laws, we also considered the fact that UST remains to recognize the authority of the Vatican, being officially the Pontifical University in the Philippines. Article 3 of the UST General Statutes states that the University is governed by “norms laid down by the Holy See”. That’s why we also cited human rights principles upheld by the Vatican through official documents.

The Holy See ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child and has participated in the drafting of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child General comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment by submitting its comment and official observations. While these are not exactly “norms”, this submission made by the Holy See can legally be interpreted as its official position on the matter and must be respected by University officials, including the OSA Directors Tio Cuison and Arriero.

Article 13.1 of the Convention of the Rights of the Child protects the right of children to freedom of expression “regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice”. This was reaffirmed by the Holy See itself in a submission it made before the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications also published a document in 2002 called “Ethics in Internet” categorically discourages censorship, to quote: “Prior censorship by government should be avoided; “censorship…should only be used in the very last extremity”.

As we see it, allowing OSA Directors Tio Cuison and Arriero to remain in office is harmful to the UST student community. Hopefully, the courage of Mr. Laparan would serve both as an inspiration to other student organizations to stand up for student rights and as a warning to school officials in enacting arbitrary sanctions and censorhips.