SunStar
File January 20, 2021 DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana assured on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, that there is no plan to deploy state forces inside University of the Philippines (UP) campuses.
Neither does the military wish to suppress academic freedom and freedom of expression.
He said he made this clear when he informed UP President Danilo Concepcion in a letter about the abrogation of the agreement between the Department of National Defense (DND) and UP effective January 15.
The agreement, signed in June 1989, prevents the police and military from entering UP campuses without any coordination with the UP administration.
Lorenzana reiterated this in a press conference Wednesday to debunk “malicious insinuations” that they will militarize UP.
Published January 20, 2021, 5:35 PM
Four senators are seeking to institutionalize the 1989 accord between the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Department of the National Defense (DND).
Following the DND’s unilateral decision to terminate its three-decades-old agreement with UP, Senators Joel Villanueva, Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, and Grace Poe filed Wednesday Senate Bill No. 2002 which places the accord in the UP Charter (Republic Act No. 9500).
“The bill will institutionalize the accord that was designed to nurture academic freedom and promote cooperation and mutual respect between the university and the State in pursuing justice, peace, and freedom,” Villanueva, a member of the UP Board of Regents, told reporters in a message.
January 19, 2021 VICE President Leni Robredo, an alumna of the University of the Philippines (UP), said the unilateral abrogation of the UP agreement with the Department of National Defense (DND) effective January 15, 2021 will sow fear instead of law and order.
She pointed out that the agreement, forged in June 1989 and known as the Soto-Enrile Accord, merely requires the police and military to give notice to university officials before any operations in UP.
“This is neither a difficult nor onerous rule, and five Presidents since 1989 have managed to protect both the UP community and the Republic without breaking it,” Robredo said.
“Clearly, then, this is not a practical gesture, but a symbolic one. One designed to sow fear. One designed to discourage dissent. One designed to silence criticism,” she added.