Lorenzana will discuss UP-DND accord if UP can explain students’ deaths

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Wednesday that he is open to negotiating with the University of the Philippines regarding the abrogation of the UP-DND accord which bans the military and the police inside the university since the 1970s.

Lorenzana said in a press conference that UP has to explain why its students were among those killed in encounters between the New People’s Army rebels and the government forces.

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“If they can explain that, we will talk. If not, then forget it,” he said.

The defense chief made the statement after UP President Danilo Concepcion urged him to reconsider the “totally unnecessary and unwarranted” unilateral termination of the UP-Department of National Defense accord.

Lorenzana also admitted that he terminated the deal without consulting UP.

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