The Senate building in Pasay. (Philippine Daily Inquirer file photo)
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate has adopted a resolution urging the Department of National Defense (DND) and the University of the Philippines (UP) to “revisit” their 1989 agreement that prohibits unauthorized military and police presence in its campuses.
During Tuesday’s session, the upper chamber adopted Senate Resolution No. 616, which also expressed the “sense of the Senate” to welcome the decision of the DND to “answer various calls for dialogue with UP.”
The resolution further prodded the DND to hold dialogues with other academic institutions and “find a common ground that promotes rule of law, peace, and security and protects academic freedom and the pursuit of excellence.”
The initial draft of the resolution filed on January 19 asked the chamber to oppose the unilateral termination of a long-standing accord between DND and UP.
But Senator Francis Pangilinan, main proponent of the resolution, sought to amend the document to reflect “developments” that happened since it was filed.
“Among them is the public statement as we earlier mentioned of [Defense] Secretary [Delfin] Lorenzana who has reached out, based on news reports to President Danny Concepcion of UP, as he has agreed to dialogue with the UP community,” Pangilinan said.
“Another development was the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines] publicly apologizing for the incident wherein the [AFP] Red-tagged and erroneously included in a list of alleged New People’s Army recruits some UP alumni, including former public servants,” he added.