KARAPATAN: Suspension of UST activists, a violation of the right to protest and free expression
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
06 October 2026
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
KARAPATAN: Suspension of UST activists, a violation of the right to protest and free expression
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.”
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.