EDITORIAL - Which is dangerous

Some people say Saint Theresa’s College sent a dangerous message to the public when it chose to defy a court order that would have allowed some senior high school students the school had banned from participating in their graduation ceremonies to do so.

It is unfortunate that these people would now say that when these very same people opted to stay deathly quiet when no less than the president of the land ordered his minions to defy not just any court but the highest court of the land.

Where were these people when the president applied double standards in dealing with the legal predicaments of his friends? Where were these people when the president caused shortcuts to be made in the legal processes required to impeach a hated enemy?

Where were these people when no less than the justice secretary defied a lawful Supreme Court order involving Gloria Macapagal Arroyo? Is it all right to defy the law in the case of those widely hated by the populace and dangerous when a school merely exercised its rules?

Saint Theresa’s College must not be judged on the basis of a controversy involving only five or so students out of the hundreds, at different academic levels, who graduate year after year and have gone on to become productive and law-abiding citizens.

If STC defied a lawful court order, it must have a good reason to do so, and for which it is expected to explain to the court, an explanation that some people have no business criticizing especially if they looked the other way in similar cases that were more to the public interest.

STC did not set a bad precedent. If a bad precedent had been set at all, it was by the president of the republic, and if these people flog STC but keep quiet on the president, then they must certainly have a skewed sense of what is right and wrong.

 Here is a school that merely enforced its rules on five out of the hundreds who graduate sans incident and you flog it. Then there is the president whose adherence to rules depends on whether he is dealing with friends or enemies, and you turn the other cheek. Which is dangerous?