MANILA, Philippines — The UP president who was signatory to the university's accord with the defense department has joined the chorus of those opposing the widely criticized termination of the deal.
Military and police personnel had been barred from entering any of the state-run institution's campuses for over three decades now, up until Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana ended it on grounds that UP is supposedly recruiting students to join the communist movement, claims that remain unproven to date.
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Dr. Jose Abueva in a statement on Wednesday said he was "appalled and dismayed" on the DND's move, citing the "great respect" he and then Philippine president Fidel Ramos had for the institutions they represented.
— University of the Philippines (@upsystem) January 20, 2021
"We had a deep understanding between us about the inalienable rights to freedom, democracy, justice and peace that lasted beyond our respective presidencies," he said. "This understanding was rooted in mutual trust, and mutual respect."
It was the two leaders who signed the pact on June 30, 1989, which came years after a similar accord was inked, that between then student leader Sonia Soto and ex-Defense chief Juan Ponce Enrile in 1982 to safeguard UPs' autonomy from military intervention, especially in protests.
The DND's recent move has since been viewed by many as an attack on academic freedom, and is seen to shrink spaces for activists and for dissent, at a time when mass gatherings are prohibited due to the ongoing health crisis and UP campuses had served as avenues for protests.
Lorenzana in a briefing earlier today denied that the abrogation is an attack, but he showed no signs of backing out from the decision, except he said, when UP officials explain why alleged students had been part of those killed in anti-insurgency operations.
Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo went as far as linking the termination to the Duterte administration's anti-illegal drug campaign that has seen thousands killed since 2016.
"Paano na lamang kung mayroong shabu laboratory, for instance, sa loob ng UP community or campus?" he said, "and then mayroon tayong valid arrest [at] search warrant?"
(What will we do if ever there is a laboratory for metamphetamine within the UP community or inside the campus and we have valid arrest and search warrants?)
In the same briefing, Lorenzana and the military were pressed if they had ever been prevented in issuing an arrest before the accord was nixed, but the defense chief did not offer a direct answer.
Students had been joined by lawmakers in condemning the move, with one senator filing a measure that would legislate the pact between UP and the DND.
The termination was reported three days after it took effect, but it had not been the first apparent affront by the administration and is instead a culmination of efforts in insisting in its unsubstantiated claims.
President Rodrigo Duterte had made his contempt for armed rebels known, but it has also seen him echoing some of his men in government to claim that UP is a breeding ground for communists, even threatening to defund it just last year.
The Commission on Higher Education had been sought for comment anew today, but has remained mum on the issue.
Its chairman, Prospero de Vera III, who had also taught in UP and is the de facto head of the UP Board of Regents, has also not commented on the abrogation. — with reports from Kristine Joy Patag
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