Jonathan Frederic De Santos

Senators formally convene as an impeachment court to try the complaints filed against Vice President Duterte at the Senate in Pasay City on May 18, 2026. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

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<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17802244278621780224425482.jpeg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Senators formally convene as an impeachment court to try the complaints filed against Vice President Duterte at the Senate in Pasay City on May 18, 2026. <em>Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA <strong>(UPDATED) </strong>— Perhaps more than others, students at elite schools learn early on that the youth are the future of the nation.</p><p>That is often in a very literal sense when going to school with the sons and daughters of top government officials, tycoons and others who have a say in where the nation goes and whose offspring are likely to follow in their footsteps.</p><p>&quot;In many ways, a degree from a prestigious institution is both an academic credential and a marker of social status in our society,&quot; political scientist Cleve Arguelles told ABS-CBN News.</p><p>He said many Filipinos believe that those from &quot;good schools are the natural leaders [and] are, in a sense, the best among us&quot;, a perception that politicians and capitalize on.</p><p>&quot;There is an expectation that their formation makes them more competent, more principled, more trustworthy than the rest,&quot; he said.</p><p>That assumption is on shakier ground this month as schools and their communities commented on developments at the Senate and told graduates to remember the values taught to them in their youth.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;BE TRUE LASALLIANS&#x27;<br/></strong></div><p>In a strongly worded statement this week, <a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.facebook.com/DLSU.Manila.100/posts/the-presidents-of-la-salle-schools-released-a-statement-on-the-growing-concerns-/1460190226135489/">heads of the De La Salle University schools</a> warned that the Senate — site of a power struggle that has featured gunfire, tears, and conspiracy theories — has put its dignity and integrity in doubt.</p><p>&quot;The controversies now hounding the Senate have become so serious that they force us to ask whether it is fulfilling its mandate,&quot; they also said.</p><p>Upheaval in the upper chamber — happening alongside International Criminal Court proceedings on the war on drugs, Vice President Sara Duterte&#x27;s looming impeachment, and lingering issues on flood-control projects  — has &quot;only deepened the perception that the institution is more concerned with shielding the powerful rather than upholding the rule of law,&quot; they said.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/5/25/-propaganda-tool-zubiri-wants-imee-marcos-con-ass-claims-stricken-off-record-1604">Imee Marcos withdraws ‘con-ass’ claims dubbed by minority as ‘propaganda tool, fake news’<br/></a></div><p>The school presidents reminded Lasallians in government that &quot;our shared identity and the values imparted to us through our education cannot be set aside&quot; when entering politics. </p><p>&quot;On the contrary, public service demands an even deeper fidelity to the values our institution upholds.&quot;</p><p>They said a &quot;true&quot; Lasallian would &quot;choose the difficult demands of principled public service over the comforts of political expediency, personal allegiance, and self-preservation.&quot;</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/5/16/up-assumption-students-call-on-legarda-to-reflect-on-values-after-senate-coup-1117">UP, Assumption students call on Legarda to reflect on values after Senate coup</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;SILENCE IN THE FACE OF INJUSTICE&#x27;</strong></div><p>The Ateneo Alumni Association, <a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1432540768902340&amp;set=pcb.1432540792235671">in a statement last week</a>, said it could not &quot;remain silent as the principles of good governance are sidelined by patronage politics, political theater, disinformation, selective accountability, and short-term palliatives.&quot;</p><p>Citing Ignatian values, the association called on Ateneans to be discerning against falsehood and to demand genuine public service, to do more for the greater good, and to see corruption and impunity affect public services and public lives.</p><p>&quot;True democracy ... demands systemic transparency, institutional integrity, moral courage, and an unyielding commitment to the welfare of the Filipino people, especially the poor and the marginalized,&quot; it said.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sDwQ03DjRM0?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>A separate statement by <a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=122101708125325395&amp;set=pcb.122101705425325395">members of the Ateneo community </a>also called out Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano and Sens. Pia Cayetano, Jinggoy Estrada and Camille Villar — all alumni — for actions that they said impeded impeachment proceedings and the service of the ICC warrant for Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa.</p><p>Referencing Ateneo&#x27;s motto &quot;Lux in Domino&quot; (Light in the Lord), they said Ateneans should &quot;seek to be the light that leads to works of faith that do justice.&quot;</p><p>Among those, they said, are standing up for the truth, for due process, and for reparation and restoration for the disadvantaged.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/5/16/pma-alumni-speak-out-amid-icc-warrant-against-bato-1649">PMA alumni speak out amid ICC warrant against Bato<br/></a></div><p>In contrast, they said, &quot;silence in the face of injustice is to fail in our calling as Ateneans.&quot;</p><p><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=850217448126963&amp;set=pcb.850218548126853">The Ateneo Law School Student Council</a> has also criticized the Senate for appearing to shield Dela Rosa from accountability.</p><p>By doing so, they said, the chamber &quot;does not merely fail in its function — it becomes the very thing it was designed to prevent.&quot;</p><p>They also criticized Senate President Cayetano, who they said &quot;fell short of the ethical leadership expected of him as an Atenean.&quot;</p><p>Instead of being an example of principled leadership, they said, &quot;his commitment to impunity is a mockery of the Ignatian values that we were all taught to hold dear.&quot;</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/5/23/cayetano-on-duterte-s-war-on-drugs-it-s-a-pro-life-campaign-1815">Cayetano on Duterte&#x27;s war on drugs: &#x27;It&#x27;s a pro-life campaign&#x27;</a></div><p>Even earlier — the same week as the Senate shooting and the leadership coup that preceded it — the student council of Assumption College in Makati told Sen. Loren Legarda to &quot;reflect on the principles she once upheld as a student and public figure.&quot; </p><p>The students said she should &quot;clarify her actions, correct her course, and demonstrate renewed commitment to accountability and justice&quot; as they called for her portrait to be removed from a wall honoring Assumption alumnae.</p><div><br/></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1780275433300702652010_1511200124388572_6439566281905417725_n.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Sen. Pia Cayetano turns emotional and breaks down in tears while delivering a speech during the plenary session at the Senate on May 20, 2026. Cayetano said the traumatic experience brought by the recent shooting incident inside the Senate continues to affect her, fellow senators, and their staff.  Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News</span></span></span></div><p>Arguelles, who is affiliated with CSO Team Pinas, said school statements have weight because &quot;they are one of the few forms of moral authority that cut across socio-political divides in Philippine public life.&quot;</p><p>Because of the value that Filipinos put on education, schools have the weight of the moral authority, alumni loyalty and social prestige that make association with them an advantage in the first place. </p><p>Senators and other politicians would be &quot;especially susceptible to this kind of appeal&quot; because of the social capital and the networks they gained through school ties, he said.</p><p>He also stressed, however, that ideals of good governance and accountability are not exclusive to the educated, an idea that school statements risk reinforcing.</p><p>&quot;Ordinary Filipinos can ask questions, demand transparency, and use their voices whether through barangay assemblies, gathering in churches, or other similar community activities,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;Direct citizen pressure matters too. Massive online or street protests of ordinary Filipinos carries democratic weight that no school alumni network can replicate.&quot;</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/10/23/up-student-leaders-pnp-quick-to-go-after-youth-slow-against-corrupt-execs-1524">UP student leaders: PNP quick to go after youth, slow against corrupt execs</a></div><p>Audrey Morallo, an assistant professor at the UP College of Education, meanwhile said schools only have a limited influence on graduates’ values and how they live those out.</p><p>He said schools do try to ensure graduates have a &quot;common core of attributes&quot; through their curriculum, activities and campus culture.</p><p>That culture and the values it comes with are reinforced in social groups, he added, explaining how graduates of certain schools tend to get along.</p><p>But Morallo said that even if curricula are centered on a school’s mission and vision, attempts at value formation also have to compete with a person’s experiences and the influence that community and society have on them outside classroom walls.</p><p>“Values formation is not just the responsibility of one institution,” he stressed. At the university level, he said, students will already have their own sets of values.</p><p>“Kaya miski gaano kaganda ang attributes ng school, kapag lumabas ang students, walang assurance na ‘yun ay ma-observe.”</p><p>(So even if the school has good attributes, there is no assurance that that is what you will get)</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;NOT A MATTER OF INDIVIDUAL VALUES&#x27;</strong></div><p>For Mhing Gomez, chair of activist youth group Anakbayan, the impasse at the Senate is not a matter of lawmakers&#x27; values and principles but a symptom of an unequal system.</p><p>&quot;Pundamental na usapin na yung gobyerno natin is designed to serve the ruling few. Sino bang mga nandiyan, sila-sila rin,&quot; he said.</p><p>(The fundamental issue is that the government is designed to serve the ruling few. Who is there? It&#x27;s the same people.)</p><p>He said true public servants should learn about the issues that citizens face and join them in their struggle, especially on the streets, to address these.</p><p>&quot;Hindi mo kailangang maging Assumptionista o Atenista para maging tunay na lingkod bayan,&quot; he also said.</p><p>(One does not have to be from Assumption or Ateneo to truly serve the people.)</p>

<p>In a strongly worded statement this week, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DLSU.Manila.100/posts/the-presidents-of-la-salle-schools-released-a-statement-on-the-growing-concerns-/1460190226135489/">heads of the De La Salle University schools</a> warned that the Senate — site of a power struggle that has featured gunfire, tears, and conspiracy theories — has put its dignity and integrity in doubt.</p>

In a strongly worded statement this week, heads of the De La Salle University schools warned that the Senate — site of a power struggle that has featured gunfire, tears, and conspiracy theories — has put its dignity and integrity in doubt.

WRAP: School communities scold Senate in wake of coup, shooting

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WRAP: School communities scold Senate in wake of coup, shooting

Jonathan de Santos,

ABS-CBN News

Published May 31, 2026 09:26 PM PHT

|

Updated June 01, 2026 09:09 AM PHT

Read More:

Senate

Dela Salle University

Ateneo de Manila University

Ateneo Law School

Assumption College

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