DILG, UP to review 1992 agreement

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Tuesday said it will hold a dialogue with the University of the Philippines (UP) to review the 1992 agreement banning police from entering university campuses without prior notification to UP authorities.

“Contrary to a report that came out in a broadsheet, the DILG wants to hold a dialogue with UP officials to revisit the 1992 agreement. For the record, what we said was that there is a need to review the 1992 agreement requiring the PNP to notify UP authorities before entering its campuses,” DILG Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said in a statement.

Malaya added that the DILG will not “unilaterally abrogate the agreement without consulting UP officials.”

The DILG also pointed out that they will assess the “level of security” in UP, which also has business establishments and residential units.

“The non-academic areas in UP have increased through the years and crime has been increasing, thus we need to discuss ways on how we can maintain peace and order in those areas,” Malaya said.

The 1992 UP-DILG agreement was signed by former UP President Jose Abueva and then DILG Secretary Rafael Alunan III after the enactment of Republic Act No. 6975, which moved the nation’s police force from the Department of National Defense (DND) to the DILG.

The 1992 accord prohibits police from entering premises of UP campuses  “without coordination with UP administration except in hot pursuit cases and similar occasions of emergency, or in ordinary transit through UP premises.”

Last month, DND terminated its 1989 accord with UP, which also bans police and military from entering UP campuses without coordination with the educational institution.

Defense Chief Delfin Lorenzana took issue with the accord’s hindrance to security and welfare of faculty, students and employees of UP. He also claimed that communist rebels are recruiting students inside the campus.

READ: No official word yet from DND on proposed dialogue — UP exec

JE