STUDENT groups at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños urged the school’s College of Development Communication to revoke the award it bestowed on BGen. Edgard Arevalo in 2017.

They made the call after Arevalo, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, remarked that drugs could proliferate in UP campuses if the pact between the university and the Defense department that bars security forces from entering the school remains in place.

This did not sit well with students.

In a letter, they asked Assistant Professor Romel Daya, president of the CDC Alumni Association, to revoke the Distinguished Alumni award it gave to Arevalo over his “baseless and unfounded accusations.”

“We would like to appeal to your good office to revoke the award given to AFP Spokesperson Arevalo as one of the Distinguished Alumni in 2017. We deemed that Arevalo’s statement goes against the principles of our field,” the student council said.

“Various members of the UPLB-CDC have fully decided that this hasty statement with no justifiable evidence puts the whole UP community at risk to be, in no way, worthy of distinguishable recognition,” it added.

Arevalo graduated in 1998 with a Masters of Science in Development Communication degree.

He supported the abrogation of the 1989 UP-Department of National Defense agreement.

“Paano na lamang po kung mayroong shabu laboratory, for instance, sa loob ng UP community or campus and then mayroon po tayong valid arrest warrant at search warrant?” he said in a news brefieng on Wednesday, January 20.

“Kung kayo ay nangangamba na may shabu na makakarating sa inyong anak, hahayaan ninyo bang makatakas ang ating huhuliin dahil lang kailangan nating magpaalam sa isang administrasyon?” Arevalo said.

The student body said Arevalo’s statement endangered the lives of students who only express dissent “to better the society.”

“It is truly paradoxical that such a member of an institution known for its mercenary traditions and disruptions of peace among the widest sectors of Filipino society is recognized and awarded for peace communication,” UPLB-CDC said.

“As the spokesperson of the AFP, he has shown endless support for the culture of impunity inculcated by the Duterte administration that manifests over their militaristic campaigns such as the war on drugs, their counterinsurgency efforts, and their countless cases of arrests, red-tagging, abductions, and extrajudicial killings,” it added.

The group also asked the alumni association to meticulously reassess and reevaluate its criteria for the selection of distinguished alumni.