DND says police are ‘worthy of trust, not fear’ after ending UP deal

That’s asking a lot

In case you missed it, the Department of National Defense (DND) has ended a deal with the University of the Philippines (UP) that bars state forces from entering campus grounds without giving a prior heads-up to university officials.

UP’s official student publication, The Philippine Collegian, posted a letter addressed to UP President Danilo Concepcion and written by DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. In it, Lorenzana justifies the nixing as a move to better protect the youth from recruitment activities by communist groups, which are supposedly happening inside the univ.

The DND-UP accord was first signed in 1989, an agreement born out of years of persecution of student activists, most notably during the Marcos regime. It effectively turned UP into a safe haven for youth protests and dissent.

With the safeguards now terminated effective January 15, alumni and various youth groups are in an uproar. However, Lorenzana in his letter swears that no military or police will be stationed inside UP, nor will there be a suppression on the freedom of expression.

He adds that he wants students to see state forces not as oppressors, but as ‘protectors worthy of trust, not fear’. Between the extra-judicial killings, rogue cops, and police chiefs blatantly disobeying their own rules, that’s gonna be a tough ask, IMO.

On the other hand, no institution, regardless of how storied and hallowed, is immune to a potential vulnerability of its core values. Maybe Lorenzana does have a point when he said that the three-decade-old deal is now ‘obsolete’. I’m all for handing out justice to anyone who threatens our country, or the safety of our future generations, regardless of where they’re from.

But when said safety is entrusted into the hands of an entity that has proven to be just as dangerous as the ‘insurgents’ they oppose, it becomes a no-win situation. And unless the military and the police prove otherwise, this recent move will be met with hostility and disbelief, despite their supposed ‘good’ intentions.

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Source: we the pvblic