Bill to ban security forces from campus passes key hurdle

The House of Representatives of the Philippines has unanimously approved a bill to ensure state security forces will not be allowed to enter any of the campuses of the University of the Philippines (UP) without prior notice, eliminating a key hurdle on the bill’s path to becoming law.

The bill, which passed on 21 September with no opposition and no abstentions but which still has to go through the Senate before being signed or vetoed by the president of the Philippines, protects the university’s eight campuses and additional satellite campuses from intervention by law enforcers, harassment and intimidation.

It prohibits both police and military forces, and institutionalises a past agreement between UP and the Department of National Defense, bringing it into the university’s charter.

The bill was tabled after Philippines Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in January this year controversially ordered the cancellation of the University of the Philippines-Department of National Defense (UP-DND) accord signed in 1989, which prevented armed forces from entering university grounds without coordinating with university officials, unless they are in hot pursuit of criminals.

Lorenzana claimed that UP campuses had become breeding grounds of Communist insurgents, in what is known as ‘red-tagging’ or ascribing communist motives or support, and called the 1989 accord ‘obsolete’.

But the unilateral abrogation sparked major protests on UP campuses around the country and led to a move by parliamentarians in both the House of Representatives and the Senate to have the accord institutionalised in law and in the UP charter.

Similar to the 1989 accord

Most of the provisions in the House bill were part of the original 1989 accord. The bill says the entry of state forces is banned except in cases of hot pursuit and similar occasions of emergency.

No member of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) or other law enforcement agencies shall enter the premises of any of the UP campuses or regional units – this goes further than the 1989 accord which mainly related to the police.

In case a request for assistance is granted, only members of the PNP or AFP “who are in proper uniform and with proper identification” shall be allowed to enter the campus or college concerned.

Further, the service of search or arrest warrants within the territorial jurisdiction of any UP campus or on any UP student, faculty or employee shall only be done after notifying the UP president, the chancellor or the dean of the college concerned.

State forces should also coordinate with the UP campus security group, according to the bill.

Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) party-list representative Eduardo Villanueva, the main sponsor of the bill, said after the bill passed the House: “CIBAC believes that instead of security, the UP-DND abrogation strikes fear in students who may hold views critical [of] or even just slightly off-tangent from the government’s stand on issues.

“Instead of cultivating academic freedom, it sows seeds of intimidation,” Villanueva said.

He said that, as the country’s premier university, UP was a model of academic freedom to all educational institutions in the country. “By institutionalising the UP-DND accord to be part of the law of the land and not just an agreement left to the mercy of the executive, it will restore not only UP’s but even the Filipino people’s confidence in its commitment to promote the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of speech, expression and peaceable assembly.”

Speaking in Tagalog, congresswomen Sarah Elago, of the Kabataan Party or youth party, another principal author of the bill, said this week: “It is important that past abuses and violations of rights are not repeated, to ensure accountability, and to send a clear message that the attacks that UP and education stakeholders are currently experiencing must stop.”

Elago said via Twitter that the bill would not only “uphold and fortify the UP-DND accord in the UP charter, this will also serve as a greater push for the police and military to enforce accountability among their ranks amid a backdrop of worsening human rights violations and impunity in the country”.

She hoped the bill's passage would push for the approval of the separate Academic Freedom Bill which seeks to protect all educational institutions, not just UP, against campus militarisation.

Academic freedom

Spokesperson for the Philippines Commission on Human Rights, Atty Jacqueline Ann de Guia, welcomed the passage of the bill through the House, saying that its approval “sends a strong commitment of the state to respect people’s freedom to express dissent, protest and exercise their academic freedom. In the past, the UP-DND accord has served to safeguard the constitutionally recognised rights of university students, faculty and employees from arbitrary repressions.”

Chancellor of UP Cebu, Liza D Coro, said in a video statement to a press conference held by the campaign group Defend UP Network as the House deliberated the bill: “It has been nine months since the abrogation of the UP-DND accord and I am still appalled and dismayed with this unilateral abrogation.

“As chancellor of UP Cebu and on behalf of the UP Cebu community, we denounce all attempts at impinging on the basic rights and civil rights of citizens, particularly peaceful activism.”

She added: “We cannot tolerate bullying or the unnecessary show or use of force in any form, especially when carried out by agents of the state imbued with constitutional duties to protect the public.

“Red-tagging is the lowest form of argument as it subverts our common desire to find solutions to our nation’s problems, as it distracts us from tackling the real issues that matter,” she said, adding that “militarisation has no place on campus and institutions”.

The Defend UP Network said security agencies “continue to malign academic freedom and freedom of speech of members of the UP community under the pretence of anti-terror and anti-insurgency campaigns without substantial evidence, thus endangering the lives of those who are under their list of suspected individuals”.

In August Defense Secretary Lorenzana said the UP-DND accord would never be restored under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte. Elections are due to be held in May 2022.

With impetus from the House approval, the UP-DND accord bill had its first reading in the Senate on 27 September after being stalled since January at the committee stage.

The UP Office of the Student Regent, which represents students in the UP governing body, said if the counterpart bill passes three separate readings (in the Senate) and, if needed, a bicameral conference committee reconciles differences, and the enrolled bill is not vetoed by the president, the UP-DND accord will be institutionalised into law.