IN REVOKING PACT WITH UP

DND creating a problem where there used to be none —Defensor

The Department of National Defense (DND) is creating "a problem where there used to be none" in its decision to unilaterally terminate its three decade-old agreement with the University of the Philippines (UP) prohibiting entry of police and military forces into the university without informing its officials first.

This was according to Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor, himself a UP alumnus, as he hoped that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana would take back the department's abrogation of the UP-DND Accord.

"We are hoping that Camp Aguinaldo will come to realize that it just created a problem where there used to be none," Defensor said in a statement, referring to the headquarters of the DND.

In his letter informing UP of the decision to end the accord, Lorenzana cited information that communist rebels are supposedly recruiting students inside the campus.

He argued that the accord hinders the DND in providing “effective security, safety and welfare” of the students, faculty, and employees of UP.

He also said that the agreement was already obsolete as times and circumstances have changed since it was signed in 1989.

But Defensor maintained that UP "does not need any protection from the military."

“Any unwanted military presence in UP, or in any higher institution of learning for that matter, is bound to constitute an invasion of academic freedom,” he said.

“We certainly do not want soldiers, whether in uniform or civilian clothes, stalking campuses and inhibiting the freedom of our teachers and students to study and express their ideas,” he added.

Apart from Defensor, other House lawmakers including members of the Makabayan Bloc denounced the termination of the UP-DND Accord, saying that it would only result in the militarization of the UP campuses and curtail academic freedom.

UP president Danilo Concepcion himself also urged the DND to reconsider and revoke its termination of the accord, saying that it is "totally unnecessary and unwarranted," and may only taint the relations between the two institutions.

He also maintained that they do not condone sedition, armed insurrection, or the use of violence for political ends.—AOL, GMA News