The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) condemns the National University’s (NU) dismissal from work of a professor who has rendered two and a half years of service as a stark example of contractualization in the country’s private universities.

The dismissal of Jose Mario de Vega, who is Associate Professor 1 in the NU, is most unjust and deserves an investigation by the government. It can be traced to the Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education (MORPHE) which mandates that professors in private universities need to be employed for three years before becoming regular employees.

De Vega is right to complain about the lack of due process and an explanation for his dismissal and in saying that no teacher should be subjected to the treatment given him. His case shows how “end of contract” has resulted in violations of employees’ right to security of tenure, defined in the Labor Code as protection from being terminated without just or authorized cause and without due process.

The NU is acting less like a university and more like an unscrupulous capitalist. Like exploitative employers who take advantage of the Labor Code’s six-month rule before regularization in the private sector, the NU is taking advantage of the MORPHE to contractualize among its professors.

Universities should uphold labor and human rights and the best principles for workers and employees. This is not happening, as the government itself implements contractualization among its employees to prioritize paying the foreign debt and increasing the salaries, perks and bounties of top military and government officials. Meanwhile, capitalist employers prioritize their profits.

University professors must enjoy security of tenure so they can develop as teachers, researchers and intellectuals over years. When they are denied this right, university students and the public, who stand to benefit from their intellectual work, suffer. Professors’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions. 

Congress must hold a legislative inquiry into the MORPHE and how it legalizes contractualization among the country’s private universities. The government should uphold workers’ right to security of tenure and remove various barriers to enjoying this right, both in the private and public sectors and especially in the country’s universities.

De Vega should at the very least be reinstated while his labor case is being heard. He should be permanently reinstated. Nothing less than labor and human rights, and the best ideals of what universities should be, should prevail over employers’ naked greed for profits.