UP admin assistant arrested, released —PNP

Published February 24, 2021 09:02 AM By JOVILAND RITA,GMA News

An administrative assistant in the University of the Philippines (UP) was arrested after allegedly engaging in an illegal numbers game inside the campus, but was later released after authorities found out the person was innocent.

Citing information from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Philippine National Police spokesperson Police Brigadier General Ildebrandi Usana said the UP employee was arrested based on a tip from a concerned citizen.

“The case has been resolved following the action taken by the police on the complaint of one concerned citizen in UP claiming of an illegal numbers game taking place in the UP campus with a person subjected to arrest,” Usana told GMA News Online in a text message on Tuesday evening.

“It was found later through the barangay that the arrested person who was allegedly engaged in the illegal numbers (video karera or something) was not committing an illegal numbers game after all.”

The arrest occurred amid ongoing talks between UP and Department of National Defense (DND) officials regarding the possible reinstatement of an accord preventing entry of state forces inside UP campuses without prior coordination with school officials.

In January, the DND ended the decades-old pact

with UP claiming that the university has become a recruitment spot for communist and rebel groups.

UP officials denied that they allow such recruitment in the campus.

The UP community and other concerned groups protested the termination, which they said would affect the academic freedom of the university with a threat of militarization.

UP Diliman - College of Social Sciences and Philosophy’s student publication SINAG reported on Monday that the UP employee and his three companions were arrested.

Based on the report, the Barangay UP Campus said that there was no spot report of the incident since the CIDG did not coordinate the arrest and no personnel from the barangay were part of the CIDG operation.

The arrested persons reportedly claimed the arrest was conducted with “excessive force” and the police “harshly made them sit and pointed guns to their heads.”

Usana has yet to comment on the SINAG report.  —KBK, GMA News

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