DILG to meet UP officials over 1992 agreement next week
The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Friday said they will call for a meeting with University of the Philippines officials next week for a review of its own 1992 UP-DILG agreement which limits police presence in UP campuses.
Interior Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the agenda of the meeting is to find out if the agreement is still relevant in upholding public order and safety within UP campuses.
He said the meeting will assess the level of security in UP considering the proliferation of residential units, business establishments, and informal settler families within UP campuses, especially in UP Diliman.
“The non-academic areas in UP have increased through the years and crime has been increasing, thus we need to discuss ways on how we can maintain peace and order in those areas,” he said.
Malaya said portions of the UP campuses which have been leased out to private developers such as UP Technohub and UP Town Center which are now open to the public as well the entry of thousands of informal settlers inside UP property poses a problem for law enforcement.
“With the growth of the population within each campus, the current capability of the university’s police and firefighting forces must be assessed. Can they still be responsible for keeping the security and order inside the campus?” he said.
Malaya said the UP-DILG Joint Monitoring Team have not met for years now contrary to Section 7 of the UP-DILG agreement which tasks the team to meet at least twice a year or as often as necessary to determine compliance with the provisions of the agreement.
“Upon the request of UP, we are open to a meeting. We really need to sit down and discuss the changes, things that are happening and the problem in UP. The bottom line is, and will always be, to ensure peace and security in the students and faculty of UP,” he said.
Malaya said they also intend to raise the matter of continued clandestine recruitment by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its front organizations of UP students which was earlier raised by Secretary Lorenzana.
The 1992 UP-DILG agreement was signed by then UP President Jose Abueva and then DILG Secretary Rafael Alunan III after the enactment of Republic Act 6975 which effectively placed the country’s police force from the DND to the DILG.
The Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police, now Philippine National Police (PNP), was formerly under DND.
Since the police was transferred from the DND to the DILG in 1991, both parties signed the UP-DILG Agreement in 1992 with essentially the same contents as the 1989 UP-DND agreement.
Under both agreements, prior notification shall be given by a commander of an AFP or PNP unit intending to conduct any military or police operations in any of the UP campuses.
Government law enforcers shall not also be allowed to enter the premises of the campuses without coordination with UP administration except in hot pursuit cases and similar occasions of emergency, or in ordinary transit through UP premises.
The DILG also expressed support on the decision of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana abrogating the 1989 UP-DND accord.
“The agreement has become obsolete and no longer attuned to the times. It was signed way back in 1989, three years after the martial law ended, during the Marcos dictatorship. The times have changed. The conditions have changed,” Undersecretary Bernardo Florece, DILG officer-in-cCharge (OIC), said.
Florece agreed with the DND of the ongoing clandestine recruitment inside UP campuses by the CPP/NPA/NDF through its various front organizations and that the agreement is being used by the Communist Terrorist Groups (CTGs) to allow them to operate freely.
"This fact has been tolerated by the government for a long time out of respect for the agreement," he added. Ella Dionisio/DMS
