STUDENT groups from the University of Santo Tomas urged school officials to reconsider their decision imposing penalties on student activists.

In a joint statement, the Central Student Council and local student councils urged the school’s administrators to be “the first and foremost bastion of democratic rights in exercising academic freedom.”

“We strongly call for the reconsideration of charges placed on Thomasian student activists and urge those with similar cases to come forward to their local grievance committees in order to arrange dialogues with respective administering bodies,” they said in a statement.

“We enjoin Thomasian priests, our professors, and administrators to uphold the rights of students, with respect to their student welfare. We must never forget that our saints, to a great degree, were radical activists who urged for social change and that duties towards our state go hand-in-hand with our religious teachings,” they added.

Their statement came weeks after a Grade 12 student was kicked out from his post as the head of counselor of the student council because of his affiliation with Anakbayan.

The university also decided not to readmit him and refused to issue a Certificate of Good Moral Character.

The groups also slammed Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, spokesman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, for tagging 38 colleges and universities, including UST, as “recruitment havens” of communist groups.

They said that such allegations endanger the lives of students.

“We clamor for student’s rights and welfare, and remind the NTF-ELCAC to refrain from spewing lies in the name of back-handed peace and harmony,” they added.