The surprise of a scientific president

I WOULD dare bet that had the 2022 elections been confined within university campuses, among professional academics and scientists, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. would have lost miserably. The receipt proving Marcos being less preferred in the scientific community was seen in the many informal polling within university campuses that showed him miserably trailing his opponents.

I would know. I am part of that community, and I personally experienced being pilloried, assaulted and canceled simply because of the perception that I was his enabler. While I ended up voting for Norberto Gonzales, I had to suffer the inequities and was subjected to public lynching at the hands of peers in academia and from student activists, on the mere prejudiced suspicion that I was a Marcos voter. I have lost so many friends, and until now some people still harass my colleagues in my school with questions about how they could even allow me to become one of them. Until now, I still suffer the trauma of being threatened with not having a job after my retirement from my previous university simply because of my politics, ironically from people who rant and rave against red-tagging and who posture as defenders of academic freedom.