Govt. rescues UP from radicals, terrorists

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 dated January 15, 2021, addressed to UP president, Danilo Concepcion, defense secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, said the accord, 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 today 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.”

Accord termination defended, criticized

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, in a statement today, 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.

In their own statements, the ‘League of Parents of the Philippines’ (LPP) and the ‘Hands Off Our Children’ (HOOC), also expressed support to the defense chief.

“For us parents, there is no reason to restrict our law enforcement officers inside the school premises, especially now that we are aware of the CPP-NPA-NDF front organizations’ abuse in the above-mentioned agreement.

“The front organizations’ perversion of the agreement created a breeding ground inside one of the premier universities in our country by deceiving our children into making them believe that it is acceptable to use extremism and armed struggle in their ideology,” said the group of parents whose children had ended up dead, missing or in jail after being recruited while still students by the CPP front organizations.