UP tightens security as Miriam, Lumads arrive

MANILA, Philippines – The University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City has tightened its security measures in preparation for two major activities that will happen tomorrow.

UP Diliman chancellor Michael Tan said members of the university police and the special services brigade are prepared to ensure peace and order during the visit of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago and the arrival of hundreds of Lumads from Mindanao.

Defensor-Santiago will hold a meet and greet with students at the Bahay ng Alumni starting AT 4 p.m., according to the official announcement from her office.

A contender in the 2016 presidential elections, the feisty senator – also a former professor at the UP College of Law – was initially scheduled to be at the university on Oct. 19.

The event was cancelled due to Typhoon Lando.

Meanwhile, around 700 participants of Manilakbayan 2015 are set to arrive at the campus at around 5:30 p.m.

Tan said the university will host the group, mostly composed of lumads who were displaced from their communities in Mindanao due to the ongoing armed conflict.

He said the university allowed the week-long activities to enable students to understand the issues hounding fellow Filipinos in the south.

“It’s part of academic life,” he said.

The university official said various activities, including a benefit concert, would be held during the week-long stay of the lumads at the campus.

No official request for support from the Quezon City Police District has been sent, according to an official of the UP Diliman police.