CPP joins condemnation of DND move to terminate deal on anti-Red operations in UP

MANILA, Philippines—The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which the defense establishment had accused of recruiting rebels in University of the Philippines (UP) campuses, expressed solidarity with those condemning a decision by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to unilaterally terminate a deal with UP that required prior notice to university officials for anti-communist operations in UP campuses.

Marco Valbuena, CPP spokesperson, said that the government “is using anticommunism as pretext to further empower military and police forces to the detriment of academic freedom and other democratic rights.”

“We join the UP community in condemning Secretary Lorenzana for unilaterally abrogating the 1989 UP-DND accord,” he said in a tweet Monday night (Jan. 18).

In a letter to UP President Danilo Concepcion dated Jan. 15, Lorenzana said the 1989 agreement had been a hindrance to operations against communist rebels, especially recruitment of cadres in UP.

Lorenzana said recent events showed that “a number of UP students have been identified as CPP-NPA, some of them were killed during military and police operations.” He did not provide specifics, though.

This prompted the defense establishment to abrogate the agreement “to perform our legal mandate of protecting our youth against CPP-NPA recruitment activities, whose design and purpose is (sic) to destroy the democracy we have all fought for.”

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