AT LEAST 200 academics from universities in the Philippines and abroad called on the government to stop tagging groups and activists as terrorists.

In a statement, they condemned the Department of the Interior and Local Government for coming out with a memorandum that “falsely terrorist-tagged” the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Confederation for Unity Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees.

“As academics, we are duty-bound and morally obliged to stand against all infringements of basic human rights. Academic freedom cannot thrive in an environment of fear and intimidation, for it rests on teachers’ and students’ unhampered exercise of their rights and liberties,” declared Professor Ramon Guillermo, lead petitioner in the 29th case against the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 and lead convener of Academics Unite for Democracy and Human Rights.

The signatories also sought a stop to extrajudicial killings and mass arrest of activists “on fabricated charges.”

The statement condemned the “government profiling, and/or red-tagging and/or terrorist-tagging of lawyers, teachers, unionists, peasants, workers —  activists — and activist organizations” in the Philippines.

“Rather than waste our precious human and financial resources on such unlawful acts which can be weaponized to silence dissent or even “neutralize” (kill) dissenters, the Philippine government should channel all its energies and resources into pandemic response – especially on contact tracing, mass testing, and mass vaccination, and additional cash aid for both poor and middle-class families hit hardest by the crisis that the pandemic partly caused,” they said.

The unity statement was initiated by the Conveners of Academics Unite for Democracy and Human Rights.

The academics asked Congress to investigate “all these recent attacks and consequently accelerate the passage of stronger laws to protect human rights.”

They also asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order against the terror law which “has only emboldened tyrannical forces to repress and kill dissent.”