Letter to Academics World-wide

Please send to academics world-wide:

[Please visit http://www.pielc.org/OposaIndex.htm and http://visayan.blogspot.com/ for more background and updates.]

A colleague’s life is in danger. Professor Antonio Oposa, Jr., a Harvard-educated lecturer at the University of the Philippines College of Law, has a bounty of PHP 1 million on his head because of his activities curtailing illegal commercial fishing in the Visayan Sea. The academic community worldwide must join the legal community in denouncing this brutal act of terrorism. Both must call upon the government of the Philippines to protect Prof. Oposa, his family, and the environmental interests he continues to fight for in the face of these threats.

On April 12, 2006, Prof. Oposa’s close colleague and friend Elpidio de la Victoria, a Cebu City government official, was shot dead in front of his wife and son in broad daylight. Furthermore, this act of violence was committed by the hired gun of an off-duty policeman, a citizen and protector of peace. Of the two contracts commissioned, Prof. Oposa is now the second, yet unfulfilled. The power of these terrorist activities is great; but by imploring upon the Philippine government, future acts may be prevented. If words alone can prevent the senseless elimination of this noble life, then is it not a worldwide duty to wield these words?

Prof. Oposa is a shining representative for the international academic community. Beyond his professorial duties, he has served the public and private sectors regarding environmental concerns. He was chosen as the commencement speaker at the Harvard Law School in 1997. Prof. Oposa has dedicated his life to education, advocacy, and academics. It behooves the international academic community to support the protection of his life and implead upon the government of the Philippines to recognize the value and basic human rights of academics everywhere.

For further information, please contact Professor Zygmunt Plater (plater@bc.edu) at Boston College Law School or Professor John Bobine (jbonine@uoregon.edu) at the University of Oregon School of Law.

Please visit http://www.pielc.org/OposaIndex.htm and http://visayan.blogspot.com/ for more background and updates.