ILOILO – Keeping the security accord between the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Department of National Defense (DND) would have been better than abrogating it, said Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr., an alumnus of the premier state university.
The UP-DND Accord, forged in 1989, regulated the entry and presence of the military and police in UP campuses. Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana unilaterally scrapped it last week, angering the UP community.
Defensor said keeping the accord would ensure academic freedom in UP.
The governor earned his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy degree at UP-Diliman after finishing his high school education at UP Visayas in Iloilo City.
He expressed confidence that UP leaders and government security officials would “sit down and talk” about the accord.
According to Lorenzana, the accord made it possible for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to infiltrate UP and recruit students into becoming New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Defensor, however, said that in all the years that he had studied at UP, he was never approached by anyone into joining the CPP or the NPA.
He also defended UP’s progressive curriculum that encourages students to be critical thinkers. He said this is essential in a democracy./PN
