{"id":18195,"date":"2021-01-20T07:18:51","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T07:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=53971"},"modified":"2021-01-20T07:18:51","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T07:18:51","slug":"chancellor-defends-up-as-bastion-of-academic-freedom-against-military-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/20\/chancellor-defends-up-as-bastion-of-academic-freedom-against-military-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chancellor defends UP as \u2018bastion of academic freedom\u2019 against military"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Lorraine Ecarma in Cebu City The University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) will continue to stand against any threats to human rights, chancellor Clement Camposano has declared in response to the termination of a long-standing accord preventing military incursion on campus.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post, Camposano said the academic freedom in the university was “not something anyone can abrogate”.<\/p>\n “The University of the Philippines Visayas like the rest of the UP System, will remain a bastion of academic freedom,” he wrote.<\/p>\n “This is not something anyone can abrogate. We will stand firm against any and all attempts to deprive us of our democratic rights.”<\/p>\n The brief statement was posted on Monday, hours after news broke of Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s decision to unilaterally terminate the decades-old pact between the University of the Philippines and the Department of National Defence preventing military and police presence in all UP System campuses.<\/p>\n In his official statement posted yesterday, the UP Visayas chancellor pointed to the tumultuous history between UP and the DND as the cause of the university\u2019s apprehension.<\/p>\n “Historical events that have shaped the relationship of UP and the country\u2019s security forces\u2014many of these leaving wounds that have yet to heal\u2014explain the university\u2019s strong apprehensio,” he wrote.<\/p>\n ‘Sordid reality of recent killings’<\/strong> Seven senators filed for a resolution expressing their opposition to the unilateral termination of the UP-DND accord<\/p>\n The proposed resolution mentions the violent dispersal of the peaceful protest against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 in UP Cebu back in June 2020 pic.twitter.com\/QMWUgD8g64<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 UP Cebu (@UPCebuOfficial) January 20, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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\n“While the Department of National Defence has given assurances that constitutionally guaranteed rights and freedoms would not be suppressed, these historical events and the sordid reality of recent killings, abductions, and other forms of human rights abuses widely believed to have been perpetrated by security forces cannot but leave us unassured.”<\/p>\n\n