QCPD seeks new security pact with UP

Monday’s pillbox explosion on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City, has once again raised concerns about security in the area.

According to Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director Senior Supt. Richard Albano, whose children are studying in UP, he will ask officials of the state university to rethink the policy, which requires policemen to first seek their permission before they can enter the school grounds.

Albano said Wednesday that he had pushed for a new agreement between QCPD and UP under which police officers would be allowed to go on patrol on the campus.

“I asked Prof. Edgardo Dagdag [if] they could draft a memorandum of agreement that would define up to which point we [would be] allowed inside [the campus],” he told reporters in an interview.

Dagdag is the UP Diliman chief security officer. He and Albano met after a pill box buried in the ground exploded on Monday near the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy.

The explosion wounded two maintenance workers who were digging holes for the installation of lampposts.

Several incidents in the past have led to calls for a review of the security arrangements on the UP campus. Only members of the UP police are allowed inside the grounds.

In 2008, armed men robbed an armored van delivering money to a bank at UP, killing the bank teller and two security guards.

Last year, a female student was seriously wounded after she was attacked by a robber who stabbed her in the head at the UP Student Council office in Vinzons Hall.

“Maybe the policy could be revised so that policemen are not totally barred [from the campus],” Albano said.

He added that he would be donating 10 bicycles which the UP Police could use in conducting patrols on campus.