MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 11 December)—Chanting “Hindi kami kalaban! Hustisya bago klase!” (We’re not the enemies! Justice first before classes!), about 300 students marched on the streets of the Mindanao State University (MSU) main campus here Monday afternoon to oppose the administration’s directive for the resumption of classes eight days after the first Advent Sunday Mass bombing that killed four and injured 72 others.
But as the students with their computer-printed and hand-written placards assembled in front of the Ahmad Domocao A. Alonto Sr. Hall, a representative of the administration said they acknowledge that many students and faculty members are not yet ready to go back to in-person classes and thus need “debriefing and psychosocial intervention.”
Aklima Lao Batao, a fourth year nursing student and house speaker of the Supreme Student Government of the MSU main campus, told MindaNews at the sidelines of the rally that resuming in-person classes is unfair for the students who went home after the management declared the “indefinite suspension of classes” as an offshoot of the bombing.
He criticized the “insensitivity and indifference of university officials” on the situation of the students and even faculty members who were traumatized by the bombing inside the Dimaporo Gymnasium in the heart of the campus.
“We are asking the university administration to allot ample time to discuss the matter,” said Batao, a resident of Marawi.
MSU President Basari D. Mapupuno, in his Memorandum No. 294-OP dated December 7, said that 1,948 of the 14,855 enrolled students have left the campus “after the December 3rd incident that disrupted regular campus activities.” In the same memorandum, he ordered the resumption of classes starting December 11.
A day after the release of his memo, student councils from various colleges and other student organizations issued statements opposing the resumption of in-person classes, urging the administration to first “strengthen the security system within and around the campus.”
They suggested instead the “temporary shifting to online setup,” which they said had been proven to be effective during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Marawi civil society leader Samira Gutoc, while attending a candle-lighting event for the bombing victims in the morning, urged the MSU administration to consider the petition to go online. “I feel that our educational system here in Marawi should recognize the feelings and trauma [of the students]…. It is both a healing and cohesion mechanism,” she told MindaNews.
But law professor Rashid V. Pandi, who is also director of the university’s Presidential Management Staff, told reporters that Mapupuno’s memorandum has a “provision on special accommodation” for those “who may need debriefing and psychosocial intervention.”
Pandi was in his office when the students marched towards the administration building this afternoon and went downstairs to express solidarity with them.
He said those who are not yet ready “need not attend in-person classes.” He advised them to contact the campus’s psychosocial service center and avail of its services.
He said, too, that some professors are not ready yet to attend in-person classes.
Pandi said that a professor at the physics department, who was among those who attended the mass at the gymnasium, reached out to him to say she was not ready yet.
“But she still came to MSU and said that she will be meeting online those students who are also not ready yet,” he added.
The Marawi campus was supposed to have its two-week final examinations starting December 4, a day after the bombing.
But many students started leaving the campus just hours after the explosion, forcing the administration to suspend the examinations.
Pandi said the examinations will be postponed to January.
“That’s the initial decision of the registrar’s office in consultation with the vice chancellor for academic affairs,” he said amid the chants of protesting students.
He said that so far, between 350 and 400 students have availed of the university’s transportation assistance to return to campus.
Shortly after the bombing, various local government units across Mindanao offered a free ride for their constituents who are studying at MSU-Marawi. (Bobby Timonera, with reports from Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
