Defense Department ends UP-DND Accord of 1989 which prevents state forces from entering UP campuses to conduct operations without notifying university officials.

Senator Francis Pangilinan criticizes DND’s move to end the government’s decades-long accord with the University of the Philippines that prevented state forces from entering its campuses.

Top PH trends on Twitter include #DefendUP, #NoToCampusMilitarization, and #DefendAcademicFreedom as of 9:30 pm, January 18, 2021.

This comes after various members of the UP community quickly denounced the supposed termination of the UP-DND accord.

In a tweet, the UP Office of the Student Regent criticized the move “as an attempt to encroach on our academic freedoms and remove safe spaces from our campuses.”

According to Senator Kiko Pangilinan, “Tinutulan natin ang panghihimasok ng diktador noon. UP has always been and will always be a citadel of freedom and democracy. No to the unilateral and arbitrary termination of the Enrile-Soto Accord. Pakiusap lang. Please don’t mess with UP.”