MANILA, Philippines — The University of the Philippines in Diliman has disputed claims that there are drug operations inside campus as well as that it is a crime "hotspot' after a week that the defense department terminating its accord with the institution that bars entry to state forces in its grounds.
Defense and military officials have continued to insist on allegations without concrete proof that UP, which had long kept an activist reputation, is recruiting students to the armed communist movement and resulting in the abrogation of an accord that has since been widely condemned.
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In a move seen to further justify the DND's termination, police on January 22 said the trend of reported non-index crimes within Barangay UP Campus, which covers seven other barangays or communities, had "remained consistent" and is therefore a crime hotspot in Quezon City.
"No [methamphetamine] or illegal drug laboratory has ever operated inside the UP Diliman campus," the university said in a media brief on Saturday. "Neither was there information or intelligence reports from the PNP or PDEA of the operation of such within our community."
The refute on drug claims followed particularly after military spokesman Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo floated the possibility of shabu laboratories operating inside UP campuses. Such remarks, however, came with no proof to support it.
UP added that drug-related cases within the community make up only between 1 to 2% of overall safety and security-related incidents. In 2020, the university said its own police tallied only 91 security cases in campus, "consisting primarily of crimes against property."
Prior to that year, UP said no drug-related cases were reported from the 247 incidents in total in 2019.
"Effectively, the number of recorded cases in campus dropped by 63 percent in 2020 from the 2019 number," the university said. "Because of the community quarantine imposed since March 2020 and the implementation of the remote learning setup and alternative work arrangements, there continues to be a visible decrease of population in UP."
UP's security office has also kept "cooperative relations" with Quezon City Police and added that it turns over suspects arrested and had even assisted the PNP before.
“[We] have been very accommodating to programs and efforts of our law enforcement agencies to totally eliminate the existence of illegal drugs inside the campus community," UP said. "We ensure that UP Diliman is still one of the safest and most peaceful campus environments in the country."
Many have questioned and criticized the DND's ending of its accord with UP signed in 1989 in an effort to protect the university's autonomy from military intervention, especially in protest rallies. It is also largely viewed to shrink spaces for expressing dissent, at a time when mass gatherings, including demonstrations, are prohibited due to the pandemic.
Lawmakers who graduated from UP joined too in the chorus of those opposed to the move, with a bill in the Senate since filed to institutionalize the pact.
The DND's move comes as the administration continues in its bid to rid the country of its insurgency problem. But such efforts had seen officials blatantly tagging activists, human rights advocates and even institutions such as UP, as linked to the CPP-NPA yet failing to prove the claims.
Those named have repeatedly denied the allegations, but often they are exposed to threats, intimidation or worse, killed, seeing the issue of "red-tagging" as exacerbating under the Duterte government.