UP Student Regents: UP-DND accord termination a declaration of war vs. freedoms, rights

Past and current Student Regents of the University of the Philippines (UP) Office of the Student Regent on Thursday opposed the Department of National Defense’s (DND) decision to terminate the deal preventing state forces from entering university grounds.

“This unilateral termination paves the way for intensifying human rights abuses. It is also a declaration of war against constitutional guarantees of academic freedom and the right to free speech, expression, and assembly,” they said in a statement.

The DND on Monday 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 said the pact was hindering the DND in providing for the “effective security, safety and welfare” of the students, faculty, and employees of UP.

The student regents, however, said the abrogation of the UP-DND pact will only lead to a return of “wanton human rights violations and regression to outright state fascism in places of learning.”

They stressed that the pact was signed after the abduction of a Philippine Collegian staff member at Vinzons Hall in June 1989, adding that an agreement was previously signed in 1982 which jump-started the campaign to protect students from police and military operations and abuses on campuses.

READ: How the UP-DND accord came about

“The campaign, won at the height of the dictatorship, included the restoration of student organizations, councils, and publications,” the student regents said.

Even before the termination, however, the student regents said the pact was “insufficient” in protecting the university.

“It is important to note that the agreement has been insufficient in protecting the university from attacks, as activists have been continuously red-tagged as part of the armed insurgency,” they said.

According to the student regents, the termination of the pact set a “dangerous precedent” for other academic and social institutions.

“The rights enshrined in the UP-DND accord are legitimate rights and not privileges. Spaces of academic freedom should be widened and deepened,” they said.

They said the university should be a space for the rights to free expression and assembly.

“It is now only one of few venues where persecuted and marginalized communities can still gather and voice their positions. Schools, churches, and community centers should be safe places of unimpeded learning and living,” they said.

Student regents decry use of drug war

The student regents also claimed that the administration's war on drugs “is being used to justify intrusion into the vibrant university community life—embracing employees, residents, small businesses, and the public in general.”

“After invading the homes of drug suspects, it is now the hallowed walls of academia that are falling prey to state violence. The anti-narcotics campaign is now being paired with the counter-insurgency crusade,” they said.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) recently released data that said Barangay UP Campus ranked 20th among 142 villages in Quezon City in the peace and order indicator over the past five years.

According to the PNP, the barangay has recorded  250 drug-related cases, 106 theft cases, 72 robbery cases, 36 physical injuries, 21 rape cases, 14 murder cases, 23 carnapping, and two complex crime cases of robbery with homicide.

“The index crime trend in Barangay UP Campus has dropped significantly in 2020, but the trend of non-index crime remained consistent,” the PNP said.

Meanwhile, the PNP also claimed that authorities of the Commission on Higher Education noted that the “prevalence of the drug problem” in UP and the supposed inability of its police force to address the problem.

The barangay is inside the UP Diliman campus in Quezon City. State forces will be able to access the barangay after the termination of the UP-DND pact.

However, the student regents said the government should focus on other matters.

“Instead of focusing its guns on schools and universities, the government should address the country’s socio-economic problems which are at the root of the armed conflict,” they said.

They urged the Philippine government to focus on the misappropriation of funds at the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and the lack of transparency in the procurement of vaccines against the coronavirus disease.

“We support the call for a dialogue between the parties and maintain that the UP-DND Accord should be put back in place,” the student regents said.

“We call on the defense establishment to honor its commitment to the university and to respect fundamental rights. We call on the government to focus on resolving the people’s worsening health and economic conditions amid the pandemic. We call on the people to join us in the ongoing struggle for a just and humane society,” they added.

UP President Danilo Concepcion has expressed concern over the abrogation, saying that it was “totally unnecessary and unwarranted.”

Student parties have also decried the termination and claimed that it was an “assault” on UP’s academic freedom and institutional autonomy. — Joahna Lei Casilao/BM, GMA News