The Defend UP Network expressed its dismay at the current development of the UP-DND Accord in the hands of the UP Board of Regents Technical Working Group.
The UP Office of the Student Regent (UP OSR) announced last September 5, Sunday that the Technical Working Group (TWG) was tasked to reexamine the draft BOR resolution prepared through the collaboration of the Defend UP Network and various UP community members.
The UP OSR stated that during the first meeting in April, the Student Regent sought to adapt the draft resolution immediately after the pattern of attacks throughout the UP system.
However, the TWG Chair and UP President Danilo Concepcion rejected the current draft, suggesting that the wording should be reviewed. He further argued that it was not yet the favorable time to pass the resolution. Rather, President Concepcion recommended that the Board of Regents (BOR) release a statement instead at the moment.
In a recent Facebook post, the Defend UP Network asserted that rewording may loosen the stand of UP to its solidarity with its stakeholders. Defend UP further claimed that the commitment of the UP Administration to protect and secure the rights and freedoms of its constituents to the best of its ability, which was explicitly stated in the draft resolution, may only be implied if redrafted.
The said resolution prepared by the OSR, in coordination with the Defend UP Network, was endorsed by all 8 chancellors across the UP System. Continuous student campaigns calling to defend UP and institutionalize the UP-DND Accord have also gained support.
At the end of its statement, the Defend UP Network reiterated, “We stand in our call for the UP Board of Regents to adopt the sectoral regents’ draft resolution and to push forward national legislative action institutionalizing the UP-DND Accord, creating similar policies that will operationalize academic freedom in all levels of learning, and formally adopting the internationally-accepted Safe Schools Declaration that prevents military presence in educational agencies and institutions regardless of circumstances.”
The UP-DND Accord was unilaterally abrogated by the Defense Department last January which voided the prohibition of the unnotified and uncoordinated entry of military and police elements in UP campuses.
