UST student files human rights violation raps vs red-tagging of state entities

University of Santo Tomas (UST) student Raven Kristine Racelis filed a human rights violation complaint against the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and Hands off Our Children on Dec. 5 at the Commission on Higher Education.

Racelis filed the complaint exactly a month after the “Preventing Terror Grooming: The Philippine Experience” forum was held by the UST Department of Political Science and National Security Council (NSC), which marked the beginning of stacked threats against her and the organization she stands for.

In a statement, Racelis denounced the propaganda machinery run by the NTF-ELCAC to silence student dissent, saying that she has never been “terror groomed” to be an activist.

“It has been a month since the November 6 forum. Since then, I have endured relentless red-tagging, online harassment, sexual remarks, and public defamation propagated by state forces and online trolls,” Racelis said.

“At one point, trolls threatened that I [would] become ‘corned beef,’ a dark metaphor they use to describe an NPA guerrilla killed by the military. This is not mere political disagreement; this is psychological terror with the aim to silence student dissent,” she added.

Racelis also condemned UST for failing to protect student-activists like her who receive attacks and said that she did not receive any form of support from the administration despite her case being a serious matter.

“Amidst these attacks, the University remains indifferent. UST has failed to protect its students…There has been no clarification, no assurance of safety, and no accountability from the Department of Political Science. It is demeaning, saddening, and alarming. I did not receive a single act of institutional support from the UST administration,” she stated. 

The student also brought up that the professor who red-tagged and gave sexist remarks against her after the forum was held is roaming freely within the university grounds, showing the lack of action taken by the UST admin.

Racelis remains firm on the things she fights for by leading mass movements despite intimidation from state entities.