'Like pointing a gun to students' heads,' student leader says of termination of DND-UP accord

The Department of National Defense's unilateral termination of its 1989 accord with University of the Philippines regarding presence of police and military forces on campuses is like pointing a gun at the head of the students, a student leader said Wednesday.

Jainno Bongon, UPLB Student Council president, was referring to the move initiated by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana who argued that the agreement is already obsolete and that UP has now been a hotbed of communist recruitment.

Bongon said such unilateral termination is a violation of the university’s constitutional right to academic freedom, which gives students and faculty members free rein to discuss social injustices and protest government policies causing them.

“Academic freedom is there so we can protest the societal ills and criticize the government’s incapacities without the fear of political persecution or retaliation from the government,” Bongon said in an ANC interview.

“With the DND-UP accord abrogation, it is like pointing a gun to the head of the students,” he added.

“This abrogation is about curtailing freedom, na para bang wala ng freedom to think and speak ang mga estudyante.”

Bongon then said it is not about whether recruitment to armed groups is happening but a matter of addressing why individuals — regardless if they are from UP or not — are joining the armed struggle against the government amid unaddressed societal ills.

Bongon said UPLB students will not be cowed with such a move and will be organizing protests against such policy and will be in dialogue to seek support from the UPLB administration.

“May iba po sa amin ang natakot na we will face political persecution, but this move only strengthened our resolve to continue fighting and intensify our campaign against state fascism and defend the university against these attacks,” he said. —KBK, GMA News