KALIBO, Aklan – The pullout of 13 subversive books and documents from the libraries of the five campuses of the Aklan State University (ASU) on Sept. 24 was voluntary, said Student Regent Apple Jeanne Villanueva.
There was no coercion and interference from the Aklan Police Provincial Office (APPO), she stressed in the “Laban Kasama ang Bayan” program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) recently.
APPO, she said, requested for a dialogue with university officials to discuss the turnover of the reading materials.
During the process of preparing for the turnover, school authorities found out that there was no record to prove the books were read by students even if they have been in the library since 2012.
Villanueva added that she could not see the logic why members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives were complaining about the turnover of the books.
She added that she favors the pullout of those books because ASU students were focused on their studies and do not engage in communist activities.
Meanwhile, Colonel Ramir Perlito Perlas said that before the turnover, they wrote a letter to ASU president Dr. Emily Arangote for a possible dialogue on the memorandum order of the legal cluster of NTF-ELCAC on the duty of the CHED (Commission on Higher Education) in banning subversive documents vis-à-vis academic freedom.
He added that they proposed if they could take a look at their libraries but the university volunteered to do it on its own, pulled out the books, and surrendered them to the APPO.
On Sept. 24, upon invitation of the ASU management, APPO received the 13 books from the university.
One of the books was authored by Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Ma. Sison titled “Foundation for Resuming the Philippine Revolution”.
On Oct. 13, the Makabayan bloc filed a resolution asking for a congressional inquiry on the pullout of books from two universities in Luzon and ASU. (PNA)
