The graffiti spray painted on the facade of UP Cebu campus red-tagging the university’s constituents, which has made the rounds on social media on March 29, 2019. |Contributed Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The University of the Philippines Cebu (UP Cebu) has launch an investigation to determine the culprits behind the vandalism on the facade of the university’s campus in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City that occurred today, March 29.
In a statement sent to Cebu Daily News Digital, UP Cebu Chancellor Liza Corro said the university’s administration condemned the graffiti made on the wall, apparently red-tagging UP Cebu’s constituents.
“The University of the Philippines Cebu administration condemns in the strongest terms the malicious vandalism of the facade of UP Cebu’s campus. Such an act is an attack to our institution as a liberal academic community that promotes critical thinking,” Corro said.
“It is a clear attempt to create fear and intimidation among our constituency and perpetuate baseless red-tagging to constrain free discourse of ideas. We do not tolerate this. We take this matter seriously and the Chancellor has instructed officials early in the morning to conduct a thorough investigation on the incident,” she added.
Photos of UP Cebu’s facade spray painted with the words “SALOT,” and “‘CPP-NPA” are now making the rounds on social media.
Today also marked the 50th founding anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA), prompting law enforcers to place the entire Central Visayas under red alert since Wednesday, March 27.
The university’s administration is also eyeing to upgrade its security facilities, and “review academic policies governing class activities that will ensure the safety and security of our students.”
UP Cebu also urged the Cebu City Police Office to conduct a thorough investigation into the incident in order to identify and capture the suspects behind it.
“We are in solidarity with the rest of the UP Cebu community in ensuring that UP Cebu remains a safe space for free academic discourse and assembly to further enrich knowledge and understanding about our country’s history, culture and politics. We maintain that the University of the Philippines Cebu as a national university will continue to promote academic freedom, nationalism and love of country among our iskolar ng bayan,” Corro’s statement concluded./elb