The House Committee on Higher and Technical Education on Wednesday, June 2, approved the substitute bill that seeks to institutionalize the 1989 accord between the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Department of National Defense (UP-DND) into the UP Charter of 2008.
During the committee hearing, the panel approved the unnumbered substitute bill and the committee report for House Bill Nos. 8437, 8514 and 8545 which all aim to amend Section 11 of the UP Charter.
Section 11-A of the substitute bill provides that “prior notification” is needed before the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) or any other law enforcement agencies, can conduct any police, military or law enforcement operations within the UP campuses nationwide.
The measure also states that entry of state forces is banned except in cases when there is a hot pursuit and other emergency cases.
The bill prohibits any member of the PNP, AFP or other law enforcers to enter the premises of any of the UP campuses or regional units without prior notification to the UP President, or the chancellor of the constituent university or the dean of the college concerned.
It can be recalled that in January, DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana abruptly terminated the accord as they claimed that the UP campuses have become “breeding ground” of groups with extremist beliefs, including communists
Lorenzana also argued that the three-decade-old UP-DND agreement is already obsolete.
However, lawmakers and several youth groups and even Vice President Leni Robredo, denounced the termination of the pact in light of the Duterte administration’s red-tagging of UP students.
President Duterte has also accused UP of recruiting students to join the communist insurgency and threatened to defund the state university.