AdvertisementThe Philippine government announced Monday that it had terminated an agreement with the University of the Philippines (UP) that prohibits state security forces from entering its campuses, leading to protests by students and faculty and fears of academic repression.Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he had ended the UP-DND accord, signed in 1989 between the university and then-defense chief Fidel Ramos, citing baseless claims that the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) are recruiting students on campus.President Rodrigo Duterte’s government has escalated its “anti-communist” operations in recent months, although critics say it is simply using unfounded accusations in a thinly veiled attempt to crack down on the administration’s political opponents.The university has a history of political activism dating back to the 1970s, when students at UP-Diliman, the flagship campus in Quezon City, held rallies protesting the rule of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.Diplomat BriefWeekly NewsletterNGet briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.Get the Newsletter
In recent years, the UP-Diliman campus has hosted indigenous refugees from the southern island of Mindanao who fled their ancestral lands after military and paramilitary groups forced them from their homes and shuttered their schools.Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5 a month.The government has claimed t…. Read more: https://tinyurl.com/y2toor8z
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Philippines Ends Accord Barring State Forces From National University
