AU-based former UP student council chair slams DND-UP pact abrogation

A former University of the Philippines-Diliman student council chairperson who is now based in Australia has expressed his disappointment over the Department of National Defense's unilateral trashing of an agreement with the premier learning institution.

Twenty-six year-old Bryle Leaño now a quality assurance team member in Sydney, Australia said, “I don’t agree with the unilateral abrogation of the Soto-Enrile Accord because it [could lead to] an intensified militarization of the university to the detriment of academic freedom."

Moreover,  Leaño pointed out in an interview via Messenger on January 22: "This is just one of the government’s ways of instilling fear [in the academe].”

Leaño, a UP-Diliman graduate in BS Chemical Engineering, recounted: “Back when I was the university student council chairperson, we organized a Lakbayan, a caravan of Lumad and indigenous people campaigning for their right to self-determination. Because of the massive support from the students and other sectors, the military and police were hell-bent in their effort to intimidate the participants of the caravan.”

The abrogation of the UP-DND agreement allows the military and police forces to enter the university without prior coordination with the university officials. 

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana's decision to trash the accord supposedly stemmed from incidents of UP students being killed in state forces' encounters with communist New People's Army guerrillas. 

Also, the military claims that UP, along with other top universities in the Philippines, have become venues for student recruitment by insurgents wishing to topple the government.

According to Leaño, "Military harassment of activists, especially that I come from the countryside, is one of the reasons why I am hesitant to go back to the Philippines.”

DND's move has become controversial as it continuously drawing protesting voices from civic leaders, lawmakers, and a host of political organizations who, like Leaño, disagree with the one-sided cancellation of the agreement.

On Saturday, the military said that aside from UP, top universities including the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Far Eastern University (FEU), Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), University of Santo Tomas (UST), Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), De La Salle University (DLSU), University of Makati are among 18 schools that have become venues for NPA recruitment.

Earlier, UP president Danilo Concepcion, in a letter to Secretary Lorezana, urged the DND to reconsider the revocation of the 1989 pact with the university and suggested that school officials and the Defense chief could meet to discuss the latter's concerns in the shared spirit of peace, justice, and the pursuit of excellence. —LBG, GMA News