UP community urges Senate to institutionalize UP-DND accord

University of Philippines (UP) students and staff on Tuesday pressed the Senate to institutionalize the 1989 UP-Department of National Defense (UP-DND) accord, exactly a year after the pact was unilaterally ended by the DND.

The Defend UP Network, composed of UP students, teachers, staff, alumni, and community members, trooped to the Senate building in Pasay City to file a manifesto urging the legislators to pass the bills to institutionalize the accord into the University Charter or Republic Act 9500.

They said that the absence of the accord has “intensified the threats to the security” of students and leaders of UP. It has also limited the exercise of academic freedom and allowed the “continuous red-tagging of state machinery in attempts to silence the critics of the government.”

“An entire year has passed since members of the UP Community have collectively experienced state-enforced attacks. Harassment, intimidation, and red-tagging has worsened, moreso amid the militaristic response of the administration to address the pandemic,” the manifesto read.

On January 18, 2021, the DND unilaterally ended its 31-year-old agreement with UP that barred the entry into the university of military and police forces if they have no prior coordination with the UP administration.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana cited information that communists are recruiting students inside UP campuses as the reason behind the DND's decision to end the agreement.

UP Student Regent Renee Co then stressed that the UP and other academic institutions should remain a safe space for free thought and criticism.

“Dahil sa mga ligtas na espasyo tulad ng UP, tulad ng mga universities, namumulat sa katotohanan at nababahagi ito sa sambayanan. Dito natin binubuo ang estado at lipunang sasagot sa problema natin at hindi natin ito magagawa kung ang mga paaralan natin ay pinapatahimik, mino-monitor, at tinatakot,” she said.

(Because of safe spaces like UP and other universities, the academic freedom has opened our eyes to reality and we share this with the people. We build here the state and the society that will answer our problems and we cannot do that if our schools are being silenced, monitored, and intimidated.)

Kabataan party-list Representative Sarah Elago also condemned the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the alleged attacks on academic freedom and human rights. 

“Red-tagging and campus militarization endanger students and teachers' lives and welfare. It creates a chilling effect in schools,” she said.

Defend UP Network asked senators to pass four bills – House Bill 10171, Senate Bill Number (SBN) 2002, SBN 2014, and SBN 2035 – that seek to institutionalize and strengthen the provisions of the UP-DND accord by inserting them into the UP Charter.

On September 21, 2021, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading the House Bill 10171 which is a measure seeking to institutionalize the said accord.

The UP community also called on UP alumni Senators Franklin Drilon, Richard Gordon, Francis Pangilinan, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Pia Cayetano, Koko Pimentel, and Cynthia Villar to stand with them and uphold the academic freedom in the institution.

The Senate has suspended its plenary sessions until January 24 due to the high number of reported COVID-19 cases in the chamber.

The Defend UP Network’s manifesto has so far received a total of 181 signatories from various individuals and organizations across the UP system.  —KBK, GMA News