FALSE: ‘UP professor’ supports UP-DND accord termination

At a glance:

• Claim: A certain Michael Eric Castillo is a professor at the University of the Philippines (UP), according to several graphics posted by the Civil Relations Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (CRS-AFP).
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: Both UP and the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG) said that Castillo served as a part-time lecturer, not a professor, in UP from 2013 to 2017. The CRS-AFP also corrected their posts shortly after the university released statements.
• Why we fact-checked this: Although the CRS-AFP issued a correction on Tuesday, January 26, copies of the graphics with the false information were still circulating on Facebook as of Wednesday, January 27.

Complete details:

The social media channels of the Civil Relations Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (CRS-AFP) posted graphics on Sunday, January 24, that identified a certain Michael Eric Castillo as a UP professor. The graphics also used the university seal.

This is false. Castillo was never a professor at UP, according to separate statements released on Tuesday by the official Facebook pages of UP and UP NCPAG. Shortly after these statements were released, CRS-AFP replaced the graphics from their channels and changed Castillo’s title to “UP alumnus and Former Senior Lecturer.”

Although CRS-AFP corrected their posts, copies of the graphics with the false information still circulated on Facebook after. Social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle identified at least 3 posts that were still being shared by accounts and groups as of Wednesday.

UP said Castillo served as a part-time senior lecturer at UP Diliman from 2013 to 2017. UP NCPAG further said Castillo became a lecturer in the college for 3 semesters, particularly during the 2nd Semester of academic year 2014-2015 and the 1st and 2nd semesters of academic year 2015-2016.

The UP Faculty Manual differentiates professors and lecturers. Professors are regular members of the teaching staff, while lecturers are on a temporary status and paid on an hourly basis. The qualifications to become a professor are also more stringent.

UP denounced the use of the UP logo in CRS-AFP’s graphics, too. “This is not an official UP post, and the use of official UP symbols is inappropriate and improper,” the university said.

CRS-AFP also removed the university’s logo in the corrected graphics.

Following UP and UP NCPAG’s clarifications, Castillo said in a post on his Facebook account that he stands by his statements but said that it is his personal view.

The statements attributed to Castillo supported the end of the 1989 UP -Department of National Defense (DND) accord and claimed that the majority of the UP alumni are not opposed to its unilateral termination.

Several student councils and groups have since condemned DND’s termination of the pact and called it a “desperate measure” against dissent. Retired UP professors also protested against it, saying that there is “no tenable or compelling reason” why the agreement was terminated. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

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