DND ends 1989 accord with UP, finally

IN an effort to rescue the University of the Philippines (UP) from further falling into the hands of radicals and terrorists, the government, thru Department of National Defense (DND), has unilaterally revoked an over 30-years old agreement with the University of the Philippines (UP) that bars the police and the military from its premises without prior consent of UP management.

In a 2-page letter addressed to UP president, Danilo Concepcion, defense secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, said the agreement, signed between then UP President Jose B. Abueva and Sec. Fidel V. Ramos, on June 30, 1989, “is hereby terminated or abrogated as of this date.”

In a separate statement released today, January 19, 2021, Lorenzana explained further:

“The agreement has become obsolete. The times and circumstances have changed since the agreement was signed in 1989, three years after the martial law ended.

“The agreement was a gesture of courtesy accorded to UP upon the University’s request.

“However, during the life of the agreement, the University of the Philippines has become the breeding ground of intransigent individuals and groups whose extremist beliefs have inveigled students to join their ranks to fight against the government.

The country’s premier state university has become a safe haven for enemies of the state.”

In his reply to Lorenzana, Concepcion, in his own 2-page letter released last January 18, 2021 to the media, urged the former to “reconsider” the decision, averring that “instead of instilling confidence in our police and military, your decision can only sow more confusion and mistrust…”

Concepcion also sought a meeting with the defense secretary “to discuss your concerns in the shared spirit of peace, justice, and the pursuit of excellence.”

Lorenzana’s decision immediately divided public opinion into two: those defending his action and those criticizing it.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, an alumnus of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and chair of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, sided with Lorenzana, noting that UP campuses and other universities and colleges as well, have become a “hotbed of recruitment” for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

“Talagang ‘yung recruitment nanggagaling dun sa mga estudyante up to the point that they’re being killed in encounters,” Lacson said, as quoted also today by ABS-CBN.

The infiltration of colleges and universities in the guise of ‘academic freedom’ that enabled the CPP-NPA to continuously produce fresh members and fighters to bring down the government by violent means has been established in the series of Senate hearings on ‘red-tagging’ that Lacson presided last year.

Palace undersecretary, Lorraine Marie Badoy, spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), noted that also in the guise of academic freedom, CPP front organizations have become “deeply embedded” in the UP systems, such as:

GABRIELA, LFS, ANAKBAYAN, CEGP, NUJP, NUPL, KATRIBU etc.”

“UP had become the well upon which the terrorist CPP NPA NDF drew fresh blood—of which an unbearable number of them have died violent deaths fighting government troops—but not first without bringing pain and grief to their families and to the Filipino people,” Badoy added

Lacson’s colleague, Sen. Sonny Angara, said he views “with concern” the decision of Lorenzana by confusing the government’s responsibility to protect the public from being radicalized or recruited by the communists to fight the government with academic freedom.

“As a proud product of UP himself, Angara notes how the State University has long been a bastion of academic freedom—where individuals are free to express diverse opinions and beliefs without fear of persecution,” part of Angara’s statement reads.

Joining Angara in lashing at Lorenzana are Leni Robredo and former senator, Antonio Trillanes IV, both stalwarts of the Liberal Party (LP), which has been shown to have supported the CPP-NPA during its early years.

DILG-UP meeting to discuss fate of agreement.

This week, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and UP officials are to sit down to discuss the continuation of a separate agreement that was signed between Abueva and then DILG secretary, Rafael Alunan III in 1992.

Much like the agreement with the DND, this latter agreement also barred the Philippine National Police (PNP) from entering the UP premises without consent of UP management.

This was a year after the creation of the PNP, the successor to the Philippine Constabulary and the Integrated National Police (PC-INP). The creation of the PNP had effectively negated the police’s commitment to abide by the DND-UP accord signed three years previously.

Sources within the national security sector said that while the DILG is ready to hear out the UP management, the termination of its agreement with the university is a “definite possibility” after the meeting.

The department, thru its spokesman, undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, had expressed full support to the decision of Lorenzana, including the other agencies under it such as the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

Following such pronouncements, it is expected for the DILG to also follow the step taken by the DND.