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INDIGNATION A wave of indignation sweeps across the University of the Philippines campuses, including the main campus in Diliman, Quezon City, over the unilateral repeal by the Department of National Defense of its June 30, 1989 agreement with the UP System that prohibits entry to policemen and soldiers on their campuses. . —CHILD JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines – An investigation into the repeal by the Department of National Defense (DND) of a 1989 agreement that prohibits any military and police presence within the campus of the University of the Philippines (UP) without prior notice. of Representatives.
Albay’s representative, Edcel Lagman, introduced House Resolution No. 1490 urging the House human rights committee to “immediately conduct” such an investigation, in aid of the legislation.
In the resolution, Lagman argued that the unilateral termination of the agreement by the DND without prior consultation and consent from UP is “illegal and void ab initio because the agreement in question was concluded bilaterally and mutually.”
“With the unilateral termination of the agreement in question, it is now open season for military and police invasion of the UP campuses under the pretext of defending national security and maintaining peace and order,” Lagman said.
“The unilateral and baseless abrogation of the subject agreement marks in red all the electoral districts of the UP throughout the country, which consist of UP Diliman, UP Manila, UP Los Baños, UP Visayas and the regional units in Baguio, San Fernando, Tacloban, Miag-ao (Iloilo) and Cebú ”, added the legislator.
Additionally, Lagman said the unilateral termination of the deal is plagued by emerging violations of academic freedom, civil liberties and fundamental rights protected in the Constitution.
“The unilateral termination comes in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act, whose odious and constitutional weaknesses have been challenged before the Supreme Court in 37 petitions, the largest number of petitions in history that attack a statute,” Lagman said.
In a letter to the president of the UP, Danilo Concepción, dated January 15, Defense Secretary Delfín Lorenzana said that the agreement had been an obstacle to operations against communist rebels, especially the recruitment of cadres from the NPA in the UP.
Lorenzana said that the DND “is aware that there is indeed a clandestine recruitment underway within the UP campuses throughout the country” by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA ). Both have been declared as terrorist organizations by the Antiterrorist Council created by the new antiterrorist law.
In response, Concepción said that the unilateral termination of the pact was totally unnecessary, adding that it may worsen, rather than improve, relations between the institutions.
/ MUF
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