DILG to bring up ‘rebel recruitment’ at meeting with UP on security agreement
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government will bring up claims of recruitment by communist rebels inside the University of the Philippines when it meets with the university administration to review a 1992 security deal requiring police personnel to notify the institution before entering campuses.
This comes after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana also abrogated a similar deal that prohibited state forces from conducting operations in campuses without prior notice.
Speaking in an interview aired over ANC, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya claimed that the government has proof of recruitment in UP campuses, though he did not mention what this was.
"The concern of the DILG is the continued recruitment of students to join the armed struggle, and that is different from activism, that is different from teaching the principles of ideologies from left to right...we have intelligence reports of what these front organizations are," he said.
"Any UP student would know at least one. I know several contemporaries that have been recruited by front organizations in the university. They went up into the mountains and were killed in encounters with the military and the national police. We will also raise this issue among others," he also said.
Asked about the potential effects on academic freedom if the department would deploy armed cops to the university to monitor the activities of students, the DILG undersecretary said: "Let's not cross the bridge before we get there. That is precisely the reason why we're meeting with the university."
Earlier Monday, the National Police Commission, an attached agency under the DILG, also said it would back any move to scrap the department's deal with the university.
Why does this matter?
- Peaceful protest actions and demonstrations are typically held within the UP Diliman campus
- The Commission on Human Rights grounds, also a common site for protests and programs, is also within the Diliman campus
- UP grounds have long been a safe haven for activists
- With the agreement scrapped, police and military forces can freely enter campuses
'Entry of PNP personnel on campus remains prohibited'
In a separate statement issued Monday, UP Los Baños Chancellor Jose Camacho, Jr. reminded authorities that while the DND accord had been terminated, the university's deal with the DILG remains in effect.
"The last time we checked, the 1992 DILG-UP Memorandum of Agreement is still in effect. Because of it, we would like to make one thing clear–the entry and presence of PNP personnel on campus remains prohibited except in hot pursuit operations and when their assistance is requested by the university. And we will always demand that this be respected," his statement read.
"We are one with the faculty, staff, and students in denouncing the abrogation of the UP-DND Accord as we view it as an assault on the freedom of UP as the only declared national university in the country by law and not simply an institution of higher learning," it also said.
Despite the security agreements, at least two instances over the community quarantine saw police personnel conducting operations within University of the Philippines campuses: one in UP Cebu, and one in UP Diliman.
In the former, police leadership claimed that the arrests inside campus were justified because protesters tested the patience of police with their disobedience. Police had pursued activists who were holding a protest outside campus.
In the latter, the Quezon City Police District went as far as wrongly claiming that demonstrators mauled one cop for no reason.
READ: UP Cebu protesters 'tried the tolerance of police, went too far' — PNP chief | QCPD says cop mauled, robbed amid reports he was apprehended by campus police
Recruitment in universities?
Government officials have been insisting that UP, which has a tradition of activism and involvement in social issues, has become a "haven" for enemies of the state. Although some UP students and alumni have joined the New People's Army, majority of its graduates have not.
A military list of UP alumni who allegedly joined the NPA and were captured or killed by state forces turned out to be inaccurate and led to the relief of one general and to another going on leave.
RELATED: Military sorry after UP alumni tagged as slain rebels show up alive
Malaya on Tuesday pointed to Senate hearings on the matter, saying, "Several former cadres of the Communist Party of the Philippines came out and explained the recruitment processes of these organizations masquerading as youth organizations."
But activist groups have pointed out inconsistencies in testimony at the Senate, with a supposed former rebel — Jeffrey Celiz, alias Ka Eric — having switched narratives at one point.
To date, his story contains inconsistencies that have gone unaddressed. He said before the Senate defense committee that he was recruited at the West Visayas State University after saying in a radio interview that he was recruited in UP Diliman.
Celiz was included in President Rodrigo Duterte's 2016 narco-list but said that he was only on it as part of confidential work for the government.
Moves like the abrogation of the UP-DND Accord, which lawmakers have voiced concerns about, were done while the country is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the past 324 days of community quarantine—the world's longest lockdown—schools in the Philippines have been forced to operate under online learning setups, prompting questions of who the military and police would be monitoring in the campuses.
As of the Department of Health's latest case bulletin, over 530,000 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the country since the pathogen first emerged more than a year ago. — with reports from Bella Perez-Rubio
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