There is too much truth in society that will be left unexposed if the academic freedom to seek and to express the truth as one personally sees it is unduly limited to the confines of laboratory walls. And to so construe the concept as a right pertaining to the university as an institution and not to the scholar as well is plain confusion.

In the editorial, entitled “The Collegian and Suppression” Ditto’s remembered words appeared: “Kung Hindi Tayo Kikibo, Sinong Kikibo? Kung Di Tayo Kikilos, Sinong Kikilos? Kung Hindi Ngayon, Kailan Pa?”

In 2006, the United Nations (UN) High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (HLCLEP) together with our organization, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights – Asia (ESCR-Asia), and key government agencies jumpstarted the national process on generating social dialogue and discourse on the issue of poverty and exclusion.