Youth advocacy group Kabataan Partylist Negros on Sunday, May 24, again condemned statements by Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson that encourage school administrators to monitor student campus activities, calling the move an advancement toward state surveillance and profiling in academic institutions.
Lacson on Thursday said “there is nothing wrong with school officials knowing the activities going on among the youth on their campuses”.
The governor said his call for vigilance was directed at school administrations following reports of rebel recruitment on campuses. While he noted the recruitment is not immediately to join the New People’s Army (NPA), he maintained that campus activities could lead in that direction.
Kabataan Partylist Negros in its statement said that transforms universities into surveillance grounds and extensions of the state intelligence apparatus.
“What the governor wishes to do only stands to stifle academic freedom, critical thinking, and the holistic development of the youth in our academic institutions,” Florence Guzon, Kabataan Partylist Vice President for the Visayas, said.
The Kabataan Partylist argued that monitoring causes a “chilling effect,” citing Amnesty International reports that link intimidation to self-censorship and declining youth participation in public discourse.
Kabataan Partylist Negros urged university administrations to secure student privacy and halt all forms of monitoring or profiling.
The group also called on the state to pivot its strategy from militarization to addressing the systemic social roots of local conflict, which they identified as poverty, landlessness, and a lack of basic social services.*
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