The student council of Ateneo de Manila University’s law school has broken its silence on Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s conduct during last week’s chamber standoff, declaring that he failed to live up to the ethical standards the institution demands of its alumni.
The council’s statement, released Thursday, follows a similar rebuke issued days earlier by Cayetano’s own law school batchmates — both groups responding to the senator’s role in an episode that allowed his ally, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, to slip out of the Senate chamber and evade an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court.
“When our alumni serve in public office, their conduct inevitably reflects upon the values their alma mater claims to uphold. Consequently, when Atenean lawyers appear to defend impunity or undermine the great mechanisms of accountability, it behooves the Ateneo community to express our disappointment,” the council said.
Framing its criticism around the law school’s founding principles, the council was direct in its verdict on the Senate president. “The Ateneo Law Student Council believes that Senator Alan Cayetano fell short of the ethical leadership expected of him as an Atenean. His actions disappoint those students who look to alumni of this institution for examples of principled leadership. Furthermore, his commitment to impunity is a mockery of the Ignatian values that we were all taught to hold dear to the core of our hearts,” it said.
The group also directed pointed calls at dela Rosa, urging him to “cease his evasion of international legal processes and to submit himself fully to the lawful mechanisms designed to address the allegations against him.”
Cayetano was asked to consider whether what transpired on the Senate floor holds up against the school’s core tenets. “We call on Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, an alumnus, to reflect on whether the conduct now being defended in the Senate is truly worthy of the principles of Truth (Veritas), Integrity (Integritas), and Justice (Justitia) that Ateneo Law stands for,” the council said.
The Philippine Senate itself did not escape the council’s censure. “We call on the Philippine Senate to honor its constitutional mandate, to resist the temptation of institutional solidarity at the expense of institutional integrity, and to refuse to become a sanctuary against accountability,” it said.
Defending the weight of a student body statement, the council acknowledged its limits while rejecting inaction. “The rule of law is not self-enforcing. It depends on institutions that take it seriously, on lawyers who live it, and on communities who demand it… We are not naive about the limits of a student statement. But we are equally clear about the cost of silence. To say nothing in a moment like this is itself a choice, and not one we are willing to make.”
Cayetano is not the only senator facing institutional backlash. Sen. Loren Legarda’s alma mater, Assumption College, removed her photograph from its gallery of distinguished alumnae in the wake of the same Senate events.
