MANILA, Philippines – “We will never apologize.”

These were the words of STAND UP, the group of leftist University of the Philippines (UP) students who are accused of physically harming Budget Secretary Florencio Abad after a forum at the school last week.

In a statement released on Sunday, September 21, the group said it was not sorry for what happened.

“As if our placards were pitchforks and the crumpled paper thrown were bombs, the guards manhandled us, shielded Abad and rushed him to his car. Alas! We weren’t able to pull him by his collar! Abad described the protest the same night as not unusual at UP and as nothing serious,” it said, adding his shift of tone the next day aimed to “sensationalize” the incident.

On Wednesday, September 17, Abad was met by an angry mob of UP students after attending a forum on the 2015 budget, where he defended the administration’s controversial special spending program, the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), and the pork barrel system.

In November 2013, the High Court struck down the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) as unconstitutional, and deemed certain executive acts under the DAP as violative of the Constitution in July.

Students yelled at Abad and hurled crumpled paper at his face, while some pelted him with coins, and another reportedly grabbed him by the back of his collar as he boarded his vehicle.

Abad and President Benigno Aquino III have expressed their disappointment over the incident, while UP professors and student leaders have demanded that the group apologize.

In response, the group said they stand by their actions, adding “the economics professors’ condemnation means nothing to us.”

“With all the might of government propaganda machinery, some university faculty and student formations included, Abad and Aquino try to turn the table against us and we are not surprised. The government demonizes its enemies, tortures them, kills them. Now that is violence. And the government has a monopoly over it. All these are but reaffirmation of whose side we activists are on,” the statement said.

“Apologies to Abad? We’ll leave that to state apologists.”

Not justifiable

Meanwhile, Malacañang on Monday reacted to the statement, saying the incident “shows lack of civility.”

“You will never be able to justify violence,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said.

In the statement, the group also contradicted Abad’s statement saying he was willing to engage in dialogue with the protesters, who were waiting outside. They also denied that they intended to hurt Abad.

“Had we been intent on hurting him and disrupting the event, we would have barged right into the auditorium while he was prattling to students, mauling everyone who got in our way,” it said.

“But with all the restraint our indignant group could muster, we waited for him outside because inside, in the so-called venue for dialogue, only 5 minutes were allotted for the open forum and questions from the audience were filtered. Contrary to what Abad would like everyone to believe that he was more than willing to engage with us, he wanted to evade us and even tried getting away through a fire exit and a window!“

The group also demanded “an apology from the Aquino administration for its failure to distribute P1.58 billion in Yolanda aid and for letting relief goods rot in warehouses.”

Over the weekend, student groups STAND UP, Anakbayan-UP Diliman, Alay Sining, LFS-UP Diliman, CNS-UP Diliman, and Student Christian Movement of the Philippines-UP Diliman said trivializing the protest as “mere violence” is an attempt to “veer attention away” from the real issue, which is DAP.

UP is investigating the incident.

Read the full statement below:

SORRY NOT SORRY

It has always been easy to paint a picture of an angry mob of irrational and bloodthirsty activists and sadly, so-called critical people are wont and more than willing to subscribe to the stereotype that the media feed them. In all the news items that surfaced since the protest, none of the media outfits has really asked for our side of the story. Were there really coins thrown? Was Butch Abad really pulled by the collar? Innocent staff and students were allegedly hurt, but how about us activists?

Unlike the organizers of the forum where Abad spoke, we already knew and believed that the disbursement acceleration program’s unconstitutionality and the Department of Budget and Management’s perennial misallocation of government funds were more than enough reasons for outrage. Had we been intent on hurting him and disrupting the event, we would have barged right into the auditorium while he was prattling to students, mauling everyone who got in our way.

But with all the restraint our indignant group could muster, we waited for him outside because inside, in the so-called venue for dialogue, only five minutes were allotted for the open forum and questions from the audience were filtered. Contrary to what Abad would like everyone to believe that he was more than willing to engage with us, he wanted to evade us and even tried getting away through a fire exit and a window! UP President Pascual, instead of apologizing to Abad, should have given him a tip or two on how to dialogue with UP protesters. You stop in front of the crowd, speak, and facilitate a discussion. These, Abad never did or even attempted to do. When he exited the venue, the video of the incident circulating online would show what transpired. And for what happened, we will never apologize.As if our placards were pitchforks and the crumpled paper thrown were bombs, the guards manhandled us, shielded Abad and rushed him to his car. Alas! We weren’t able to pull him by his collar! Abad described the protest the same night as not unusual at UP and as nothing serious.

The abrupt shift then in Abad’s statement the day after, condemning the “violence and aggression” of our group, obviously, is a tactic to sensationalize the incident and an attempt to swing people’s attention to the petty issue of civility. As for the civilians who were allegedly hurt, they have yet to surface. We have extended our lines to those who’ve accused us since this has come to our attention but until now, information about the “victims” are not forthcoming. As for our members who were pushed and shoved by Abad’s protectors, nobody seems to care.With all the might of government propaganda machinery, some university faculty and student formations included, Abad and Aquino try to turn the table against us and we are not surprised. The government demonizes its enemies, tortures them, kills them. Now that is violence. And the government has a monopoly over it. All these are but reaffirmation of whose side we activists are on.

Our allegiance is with the Yolanda victims, Hacienda Luisita farmers, families of slain journalists and the rest of the deprived Filipino people. We are no longer their scholars because we pay for our education now — the corrupt pilfers our taxes and the state gives the university only half of what it needs — but we still try to live up to the responsibility of the iskolar ng bayan: and that is to be the conscience of this nation, the voice of the oppressed, social critics undaunted by adversity and patient agents of social change.

As much as we would want to condemn the organizers of the forum for giving venue to pure government propaganda in defense of the DAP and budget misallocation — a travesty to the blood shed by martial law martyrs of these institutions — we will not.

Instead, we enjoin these formations to release a statement demanding an apology from the Aquino administration for its failure to distribute P1.58 billion in Yolanda aid and for letting relief goods rot in warehouses. We enjoin these formations to dialogue with Jovito Palparan and ask where he gets the gall to still deny his hand in Karen and Sherlyn’s disappearances. And we request, nay demand, that these formations condemn no less than BS Aquino himself for his latest remarks on media killings as though it’s the murdered journalists fault that they got killed – an insult to democracy and a blatant disregard for justice! Though their multi-perspectivism always fail to respect our militancy, we will wait for the day they realize their myopia and historical amnesia and join the people’s struggle. Their apologies won’t be required.

The economics professors’ condemnation means nothing to us. They have done nothing for the development of this country. These vanguards of neoliberalism, the architects of the Third World sinkhole that our country is in today, mean nothing to the people. Actually, we laud these professors for breaking their academic silence and rising from their moral stupor with a statement on this incident when, in our formation’s 18 years of existence, we haven’t heard from them, not even during Estrada’s ouster. Apologies to Abad? We’ll leave that to state apologists.

We expect the hectoring of Alfredo Pascual, nothing less from a Malacanang lackey, but we advise him not to overreact like the professors of Diosdado Macapagal Hall and use this incident as a Marcosian pretext to interpret provisions of the Code of Student Conduct against us.

As we commemorate the imposition of martial rule and the struggle against it, we are reminded that the rights we enjoy and take for granted today are fruits hard-won by bloodshed, civil disobedience and revolutions of generations past. Niceties amount to nothing in the tally sheet of the ongoing struggle of the oppressed. And all that we activists need to apologize for is when we fail to take their side.

– Rappler.com