KARAPATAN condemned the suspension by the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) administration of four student activists for staging a protest action on campus against the Philippine Air Force (PAF).
The four students — Raven Racelis, Ralph Manuel, Mecaella Capalar and Dex Frogoso — were slapped with suspensions ranging from four to ten days. Capalar was also removed from her position as a student council officer. The UST administration likewise withheld their certificates of good moral character. Racelis is a Philosophy student, Manuel a Behavioral Sciences junior, Frogoso a Biochemistry freshman and Capalar an Architecture senior. The UST administration had given in to the PAF’s demands to reprimand the students, but the sanctions fell short of the PAF’s calls to expel them from UST.
The four activists had confronted PAF personnel on April 21, 2026 when the latter staged a display of air force equipment during the joint celebration of UST’s 415th and the PAF’s 79th anniversaries. They expressed opinions on the PAF’s use of its air assets to perpetrate human rights violations and aerial bombings. The students also questioned the UST administration for allowing the presence of military forces on campus.
“It is alarming enough that the military is encroaching on campuses, stifling academic freedom and the students’ right to free expression and to protest,” decried KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay. “We stand with the UST students in their struggle against this latest act of repression that adds to the growing number of attempts by the state to suppress the people’s right to protest.”