DILG eyes review of UP deal, too

Agency is calling for a meeting with UP officials in response to their request for a dialogue

After the Department of National Defense (DND) rescinded a 1989 agreement with the University of the Philippines (UP) to restrict the entry of soldiers in its campus, it was the turn yesterday of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to review a similar deal limiting policemen’s presence in the State University’s premises.

Under the UP system, the institution maintains its own police and fire departments.

Non-academic areas in UP have increased through the years and crime has been increasing.

The DILG said it will call for a meeting with UP officials next week for a review of the 1992 UP-DILG accord to find out if the agreement is still relevant and serves to uphold public order and safety within UP campuses.

DILG Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the agency is calling for a meeting with UP officials in response to their request for a dialogue or meeting to address the concerns of the department in the spirit of justice, mutual trust, and the pursuit of excellence.

He said the meeting will assess the level of security in UP considering the proliferation of residential units, business establishments, and informal settler families within UP campuses, especially in UP Diliman. “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,” he said.

Malaya said portions of UP campuses leased out to private developers such as the UP Technohub and UP Town Center which also imposes the restrictions are, however, commercial places that should have more police presence.

Security concerns

The entry of thousands of informal settlers inside the UP property also poses a problem to law enforcers.

“With the growth of the population within each campus, the current capability of the university’s police and firefighting forces must be assessed. Can they still uphold the responsibility to maintain security and order within the campus,” he said.

Malaya said the UP-DILG Joint Monitoring Team has not met for years now contrary to Section 7 of the UP-DILG agreement which tasks the team to meet at least twice a year or as often as necessary to determine compliance with the provisions of the agreement.

“Upon the request of UP, we are open to a meeting. The bottomline is, and will always be, to ensure peace and security in the students and faculty of UP,” he said.

The DILG spokesperson said the agency also intends to raise the matter of continued clandestine recruitment of UP students by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its front organizations which was earlier raised by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.