Senators oppose unilateral termination of DND-UP agreement

After the Department of National Defense unilaterally terminated an agreement with the University of the Philippines that prohibited the entry of state security forces in campuses, several senators on Tuesday filed a resolution that opposed the DND's action.

Filed by Senators Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, Nancy Binay, Ralph Recto, Leila de Lima, and Frank Drilon, Senate Resolution No. 616 urges both parties to "commence a dialogue and find common ground that promotes peace and security, and protects academic freedom and the pursuit of excellence."

In the filing, the senators pointed to a March 2020 incident in which UP Manila students who led donation drives for COVID-19 frontliners received death threats and were accused of being a New People's Army members.

The senators also recalled how the Cebu City police arrested and dispersed the students who were peacefully protesting the Anti-Terrorism Act inside the UP Cebu campus in June 2020.

Police commanders accused the students of violating protocols against mass gatherings, but a Cebu City court later ordered the protesters released.

The 1989 agreement which the DND abrogated was signed a few days after Donato Continente, staffer of the campus publication Philippine Collegian, was arrested by security forces at the Vinzons Hall in UP Diliman.

The pact succeeded the 1982 Soto-Enrile Accord which was inked by student leader Sonia Soto and former defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the 1989 agreement was terminated for being "moot and academic" and stressed that the UP allegedly had become a breeding ground for communist rebels.

UP President Danilo Concepcion called the termination unnecessary and unwarranted.

UP Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Elena Pernia also said thAT the university did not condone New People’s Army recruitments inside the campus.

Several senators who graduated from UP urged Lorenzana to reconsider this decision, asserting that academic freedom needed to be upheld.

Meanwhile, former chiefs of the Philippine National Police, Senators Panfilo Lacson and Ronald "Bato" Dela Rosa, said the DND's move made sense.  — DVM, GMA News