Democratic sectors within the University of the Philippines (UP) System condemned the signing on August 8 by the university administration and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) of a “declaration of cooperation” to allow collaboration between the two institutions. In a joint statement by the UP Office of the Faculty Regent, UP Office of the Staff Regent, UP Office of the Student Regent, KASAMA sa UP and Defend UP Network, they assailed the administration’s signing of the agreement as a major violation of academic freedom.

AFP Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr. and Dr. Leo DP Cubillan, UP Vice President for Academic Affairs, led the declaration signing ceremony. The agreement will allow for various “initiatives, including joint research projects, academic programs, and community outreach activities, with the goal of strategically leveraging resources and skills between the AFP and UP.”

“UP purportedly champions fearless scholarship and critical thinking, but its administration now wants to ‘strategically align (its) resources and expertise’ with a coersive institution that we all know has been accused countless times by local and international human rights watchdog groups of trampling on civil liberties in its purported counterinsurgency campaigns and attacks on government critics and dissidents,” the statement said.

They said that in entering into this agreement, the university will be complicit with the widespread violations of human rights and political repression carried out by the AFP. They further stressed that this legitimizes the ongoing suppression on critical voices and progressive initiatives within the university that the AFP calls threats to “national security.”

They also condemned the administration of Angelo Jimenez, president of the UP System, because it casually entered into the agreement without consulting members of the UP community. They said this is just one of the many undemocratic steps and decisions of the Jimenez administration.

This agreement between the UP and AFP was signed only a few days after the recent hearing of Sen. Bato dela Rosa where he baselessly linked campus organizations to the revolutionary armed movement in the country. Dela Rosa held the so-called “Red-tagging hearing” on August 6, where traitors to the Filipino people such as Kate Raca, now an AFP soldier, Ariane Jane Ramos and others were invited.

Youth groups and other sectors launched a protest in UP-Diliman on August 9 to condemn the agreement and the “Red-tagging hearing” by dela Rosa. Meanwhile, many organizations in various UP campuses across the country signed a statement condemning the “Red-tagging hearing”.