In this week of student protests, University of the Philippines (not to be confused with the Polytechnic University of the Philippines) threw paint bombs at a member of the university’s Board of Regents.

From gmanews.tv

While some sectors may call the protest action ‘awesome shit,’ there may have been less ecstatic reactions from some of UP’s more moderate students.

And so, we have this ‘apology’ being passed around on facebook:

Given people’s propensity to not read to the very end of things, facebook users (and you) probably stopped reading at “Contrary to what the whole nation witnessed on March 24, 2010, not all members of the University are rude, uncouth and disrespectful.” And, really, that’s one facebook statement I’d append my signature to without hesitation. I mean, the people have to know that we don’t all throw paint bombs at officials, right? I mean, a lot of us just get high and/or drunk at the Sunken Garden not bothering anyone. Right?

Except when you read it till the end and you realize that this isn’t an apology at all. The ‘community’ “will not apologize, however, for our militant actions (like throwing paint bombs)” because, as they say, the UP administration left them with no choice but to disrespect a university official with some sort of doctorate or whatever. The statement circulating on facebook is an apology, that’s true enough. But it’s an apology on behalf of the UP administration for forcing students to throw paint at them.

I wonder whether the more than 100 people who appended their signatures to the apology know that they were endorsing the incident that they may have been trying to distance themselves from.

On the other hand, this is a brilliant piece of work. I almost signed it myself.

Tags: public order, university of the philippines