Albayalde bats for police presence in state university campuses

STATE universities are “government property,” but there is no police presence in them, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde said.

He made the comment in response to the call to increase police presence in the campuses to stop the radicalization of students.

Albayalde admitted that uniformed personnel are not allowed in some campuses and he had asked Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa to review the memorandum of agreement between the authorities and the universities.

“This is government property, but our law enforcers cannot enter,” he said.

In Israel, Albayalde said, police bring “long” firearms and people feel secured.

“In other countries, even in hotels, they want police to roam there so that they feel more secured. Here, always brainwash, always the opposite,” the PNP chief added.

Last August 7, dela Rosa said in the hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs that schools should “police their ranks” to check if the professors were radicalizing the students.

The senator particularly mentioned increasing police patrols at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) to deter communist recruitment in the school.

Albayalde also questioned the teachers in campuses, who allegedly require their students to attend rallies.

“Why don’t they answer my question yesterday (August 7)? That teachers are requiring their students to join rallies,” Albayalde said.

The PNP chief said a friend told him that in just the first two weeks, students were being taught how to conduct and join rallies.

“Is that right? In the guise of immersion?” Albayalde said as he challenged Anakbayan and other leftist groups to answer the inquiries of the parents about missing students.

“That is our challenge to them, answer and say where are the children of the crying parents,” Albayalde dared the groups, saying the students might be in the mountains now and would soon be involved in the “encounters between the New People’s Army and the military and police forces.”

The PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group has filed kidnapping and other charges against the recruiters of the disappeared 17-year-old Far Eastern University senior high school student. The “missing” students are enrolled at PUP and senior high school at FEU, and are said to have joined the League of Filipino Students, Anakbayan and Kabataan party-list.

In October last year, the military alleged that the Communist Party of the Philippines was responsible for organizing 18 schools in the move to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.