Senator Ronald Dela Rosa on Tuesday said the unilateral termination of the 1989 deal between the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Department of National Defense (DND) was already “long overdue.”
(Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa / Facebook page / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
“The government was fooled by the CPP/NPA/NDF (during) the last 31 years through that agreement,” the senator said, referring to the Communist Party of the Philippines, New Peoples Army and the National Democratic Front.
The agreement primarily prohibits state forces from entering the UP campuses without giving due notice to UP officials.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana defended the DND’s move saying this “gesture of courtesy” is now obsolete.
“The agreement has become obsolete. The times and circumstances have changed since the agreement was signed in 1989, three years after martial law ended,” Lorenzana said.