The University of the Philippines (UP) is still pushing for the restoration of their 1989 agreement with the Department of National Defense (DND) that soldiers and police can only enter their campus if approved by school officials.
At the same time, it was reported that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana was open to dialogue to discuss the issue of academic freedom after he terminated the agreement.
According to Lorenzana, he is talking to a friend to mediate because he also wants to talk to the UP leadership.
“As of now we have not received anything in writing, we have made a statement as well that we welcome it and all that we want is some agreement on the date and the venue. We are really hoping that it occurs very soon,” said Elena Pernia, UP vice president for public affairs.
In a letter from UP professors emeriti, they urged the chairman of the UP Board of Regents Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Prospero de Vera, and UP President Danilo Concepcion to further strengthen academic freedom at the university.
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“[J]oin us in working to strengthen the ramparts of our academic freedom against those whoo seek to weaken them, and, to that end, to uphold meritocracy over mediocrity, and collegial self-governnance over authoritarian diktat, in both the long-term horizon and the day-to-day decisions of the board,” they said.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan is pushing for the extension of academic freedom, not only at UP but also at other universities and colleges through his proposed Academic Freedom Act of 2021.
According to Pangilinan, what DND did at UP was part of silencing the government’s critics.
“All of this is in the context of an authoritarian bent of this administration, kamay na bakal… All of this is disturbing because it is geared towards stifling dissent, geared towards demonizing critics, those who speak up and that is why we have to speak up,” Pangilinan insisted.