UP bureaucracy blamed for delay in construction of Martial Law museum

There has been a delay in the construction of a museum honoring Martial Law victims that was supposed to have started last January, an official of the Human Rights Violation (HRV) Victims Memorial Commission told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Facing a budget hearing at the House of Representatives, Carmelo Crisanto, the commission's executive director, blamed the bureaucracy in the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman for the delay.

Crisanto explained that while UP Diliman has donated 1.4 hectares of its property for the construction of the Freedom Museum, it has yet to sign a handover document that will relocate the present occupants of the area as provided under a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the university and the commission.

"The first thing UP has to do is to sign the handover or turnover document from the Memorial Commission to UP," Crisanto said during the budget deliberations on the Commission on Human Rights' (CHR) proposed P1-billion budget for 2025.

He said signing the document "means they can now fully control the assets that we have provided and infuse from their own budget P50 more million to complete the landscaping, the office buildings [in the relocation site] for the staff of UP’s Community Maintenance Office, Yard and Workshop, among others."

Crisanto was responding to the questioning of House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas as to why the construction of the Freedom Museum was delayed.

The construction of the Freedom Museum is provided under Republic Act 10368 or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act, which grants monetary and non-monetary compensation in recognition of the heroism of the victims of human rights violations during the Martial Law period from September 21, 1972 to January 17, 1981.

The HRV Victims Memorial Commission is under the CHR.

"Without them (UP) signing that handover document or the turnover document, hindi po malalagyan ng pera ang UP to finish the relocation. We finished the relocation site for them to the tune of P80 million, which is part of our trust fund, although the entire project cost would cost P130 million, the difference of which UP said they will provide and they have the fund there," Crisanto explained.

"In October 2022, we did finish the relocation [work] of this building, but up to now, September 2024, UP has not moved in to their relocation. If I look at the number of months that I've been delayed by UP, it's now like 20 months," he added.

Unacceptable

Brosas said such delay on the part of the state university is unacceptable, given that most of Martial Law victims are already senior citizens and frail.

"The Martial Law survivors are asking us, Where is the Freedom Museum?" Brosas said. "Baka nga sobrang matatanda na, namamatay na 'yung iba (They are so old some of them are already dying)."

“At least man lang makita nila 'yung museum na pupuntahan ng mga anak, apo at ‘yung mga bagong henerasyon, [para] hindi makalimutan ‘yung nangyayari nung nakaraan. Iyon po ang halaga ng museum," Brosas added.

(They should at least witness the museum that their children and grandchildren and the future generation will see, so as not to forget what happened in the past. That is the purpose of a museum.)

Foot-dragging

Crisanto said the HRV Victims Memorial Commission and the CHR will keep on pressing UP, but they would need help from Congress in making the university take action.

"I've been in constant communication with the leadership of UP. And some of them actually have been victims of that period. Their executive vice president was actually incarcerated in Bicutan for two years. So their heart is in it. I cannot understand the bureaucracy of UP," Crisanto lamented.

"I cannot explain their seeming foot-dragging on this matter. But with our chair of the CHR, we will try to once again reach out to them. But we do need the help of Congress in actually nudging UP to fulfill its end of its obligation," he added.

House Committee on Higher and Technical Education Chairperson Mark Go, who sits as one of the members of the UP Board of Regents, said the Board has yet to discuss the construction of the Freedom Museum and vowed to be of assistance to the Memorial Commission.

"We are yet to talk about that before the Board of Regents. But to respond to your concern, I will bring it up in our next Board of Regents meeting. Or even have a phone call to President Jiji [Jimenez]," Go said.

GMA News Online has reached out to UP President Angelo "Jijil" Jimenez for comment and will publish it as soon as it becomes available. —KBK, GMA Integrated News