Appendix 1.8: Resolution Adopted by the UP Faculty Assembly, Some Members of the Faculty of the College of Business Administration, and the College of Law on the Suspension of the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, 21 August 1971

Abstract

While it may be unfair to generalize that the College of Business Administration and the College of Law as traditionally conservative, it is interesting to highlight how their faculty members reacted, in the form of written resolutions, to Marcos’s most significant utilization of his constitutional police powers before declaring martial law—the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus on 21 August 1971. In comparison to the stand of the other colleges and the UP Faculty Assembly, the resolution of the College of Business Administration was rather tame. It gave Marcos the benefit of the doubt (“allow such proofs to stand the test of our courts”). In a similar vein, the College of Law’s resolution starts by acknowledging that the constitution allows the president to order the writ’s suspension, but urges him to lift it mainly to calm an already agitated citizenry, thereby performing “a redeeming act of statesmanship.”