AFP says sorry for deploying agents in UP

The Armed Forces of the Philippines yesterday said it was sorry after its agents were apprehended while apparently conducting surveillance on the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines.

“The AFP humbly apologizes for the incident and assures the public and the UP [community] that any inconvenience that arose out of this incident is not intentional. We will work to ensure that this does not happen again,” said the AFP press statement.

Last Wednesday, six men were arrested by the UP Diliman police for “suspicious activities” in the school premises. Upon questioning, one of the men said he was from the military, but remained mum on any other details.

The men were turned over to the Philippine National Police station at Anonas, which identified one of the men to be 1st Lt. Fidorf Cimatu of the Army Intelligence Security Group.

In an interview yesterday, the Anonas station commander, Supt. Wilson de los Santos, said the UP police did not file any complaints against the men, who were released after their identities were “verified.”

But the UP Diliman administration accused the military of violating a 1989 agreement between the university and the Department of National Defense, in which the university must be notified first of any military operations in the campus. No such coordination was made, UP Chancellor Michael Tan said in an earlier statement.

The AFP explained that its personnel were on a “legitimate national security operation,” and had “no intent to violate the 1989 agreement.”

“It was a transparent operation that was properly coordinated with the local police,” the AFP said.

The AFP said that “university students and members of the UP faculty were not the subject of that operation, as alleged by some quarters.”

“Our security operations are all done in the best interest of our people and that these are pursued so as to prevent crimes and terroristic acts against our citizens,” it said.

The discovery of the military surveillance came days before the weeklong campout in UP Diliman of lumad (indigenous peoples) from Mindanao, under the Manilakbayan caravan to protest the alleged militarization of, and human rights violations in, lumad communities in Mindanao.

Human rights group Karapatan, one of the activist groups supporting the Manilakbayan, slammed the AFP’s belated apology.

In a statement, Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay blamed the military’s counterinsurgency program for human rights violations in Mindanao. “Even in Manila, you [the AFP] didn’t lay off the lumad!” Palabay said in Filipino.

“An apology will not make the violation go away. Officials should be held accountable,” Palabay said.