CAGAYAN de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed a measure that seeks to ensure the right of higher educational institutions to critically think, speak, move, act and dissent.

In pushing for House Bill 8546 or the proposed Academic Freedom Act, Rodriguez stressed the need to strengthen and uphold the freedom of teachers and students to teach, study, and pursue knowledge and research without unreasonable interference.

The bill aims to declare all public and private HEIs as freedom spaces where academic freedom is guaranteed.

“Ensuring academic freedom is vital to the realization of our societal goals as a democracy. It is through ensuring that academic institutions are free to breed new ideas through dynamic discourse that we are able to develop as a nation and guarantee the protection of our fundamental rights to freedom of expression, opinion, and association,” Rodriguez said in his explanatory note.

Under the bill, no permit, written or otherwise, shall be required by the national or local government from any person or group that wishes to organize and hold a public assembly in HEIs.

The measure also prohibits uniformed personnel from interfering in peaceful protest actions within HEI permises.

It states that no HEI student, faculty or employee shall be subjected to custodial investigation or detention without warrant of arrest under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

The measure mandates HEI officials to see to it that their students, faculty, employees, and other members of its immediate community act properly.