After UP tagging, mountaineering group quips: 'Namumundok talaga kami'

Many University of the Philippines students and alumni have turned to humor in response to the tagging of UP as a venue of "clandestine recruitment" into the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army.

For example, OPM singer Dong Abay made a hilarious joke about his "recruitment" to the UP Maroons and winning the UAAP championship, poking fun at his resemblance to fellow alumnus Benjie Paras.

The UP Mountaineers followed suit with their own funny quip, sharing on Facebook a poster which said, "Namumundok talaga kami. Sama ka?"

"Gusto mo ring mamundok? Wala naman kasing stigma at red-tagging dapat sa pamumundok," the caption read. "We stand with the UP community in the call to uphold the 1989 UP-DND accord."

The UP Mountaineers is a student organization founded in 1977 and a member of the Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines Inc.

Its mission is "to establish and strengthen a broad-based community of outdoor leaders who actively promote responsible mountaineering and committed to understanding, appreciating and protecting the environment."

The Department of National Defense recently terminated its 31-year-old agreement with UP, which bans the entry of military and police forces into the university without prior coordination with UP officials.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana cited information that communists are recruiting students inside UP campuses, but UP Diliman Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo said that the defense department needs to show proof of its claim.

—MGP, GMA News