MANILA, Philippines (Updated 7:56 p.m.) — Several lawmakers on Tuesday urged the Senate to oppose Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana's abrogation of a decades-old agreement with the University of the Philippines (UP) which bars security forces from entering its campuses without coordination.
Proposed Senate Resolution 616 expresses the "sense of the Senate" to object to the unilateral termination of the 1989 accord. It was authored by Sen. Francis Pangilinan and signed by Sens. Risa Hontiveros, Nancy Binay, Ralph Recto, Leila de Lima, Fraklin Drilon and Joel Villanueva.
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Sen. Richard Gordon has since expressed his intent to be made a co-author of the resolution, Pangilinan's office said, adding that this "will be manifested on the floor once the resolution is scheduled for sponsorship."
The senators also called on the UP and the Department of National Defense to "commence a dialogue and find common ground that promotes peace and security and protects academic freedom, and the pursuit of excellence."
Pangilinan, Drilon, Binay and Gordon are all UP System graduates. Although he did not sign the resolution, Sen. Sonny Angara earlier Tuesday released a statement urging Lorenzana to reconsider the termination of the accord.
But four other senators who graduated from UP, namely Aquilino Pimentel III, Pia Cayetano, Cynthia Villar, Juan Miguel Zubiri, did not sign the resolution and released no statement on the matter.
Senators: Agreement not 'moot and academic' as Lorenzana claims
The resolution further refutes a claim by Lorenzana that the agreement has "become moot and academic," citing several instances that prove otherwise.
It reads: "in June 2020, Cebu City police, without coordinating with UP officials, arrested and violently dispersed students who were peacefully protesting the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 inside the UP Cebu campus for allegedly violating the government's ban on mass gatherings."
Senators also recalled that "in March 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, UP Manila students who initiated donation drives to help the frontliners to the Philippine General Hospital were sent death threats and accused of being members of the New People's Army."
A report from the school's student paper, The Philippine Collegian, on Monday night revealed that Lorenzana in a letter to UP President Danilo Concepcion said the deal was terminated on January 15.
The defense secretary also said that there is "ongoing clandestine recruitment inside UP campuses nationwide for membership in the CPP/NPA" and that recruiters in the university were using the accord "as a shield or propaganda." UP has long denied these claims and the defense sector has failed to present substantial proof to back up its accusations.
Since the abrogation was reported on Monday, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives have voiced either opposition or concern, warning against the escalation of tensions between students and the government as well as the further shrinking of democratic space.
Students and some House members also trooped to UP to protest the move, according to reports from the Philippine Collegian and Ateneo de Manila University's student publication The GUIDON.