Panelo: UP to remain citadel of freedom without DND pact

BY ARGYLL GEDUCOS

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo believes that the University of the Philippines (UP) will remain as the “citadel of freedom” even with the unilateral scrapping of its agreement with the Department of National Defense (DND), saying it can continue to do what it is doing over the past three decades.

Panelo made the statement after the DND terminated its three-decade agreement with UP that bars the entry of the military or the police in campuses without prior notice to the university’s administration.

In a statement, Panelo said that nothing much will change with UP even if the said agreement got scrapped.

“With or without the MOA (memorandum of agreement), governments will come and go, UP remains the citadel of freedom,” he said.

Panelo, a product of UP himself, said the termination of the UP-DND Accord does not violate academic freedom nor the freedom of expression and of speech.

“With or without the MOA, UP has the sole authority what courses to teach, the manner by which the same is taught. It decides who the faculty members will be,” he said.

“The freedom of expression and of speech is not abridged. Nor is the right to peaceably assemble prohibited. Neither does the abrogation proscribe or stop from thinking freely on any subject,” he added.

The Palace official, however, stressed that the accord impeded law enforcement.

“The MOA can not supplant the Constitution and laws of the land,” Panelo said.

“While parties in a contract can stipulate terms and conditions as they deem mutually acceptable, the same can not – and must not be contrary to law, morals, good customs, public order or public policy. That legal principle is basic,” he added.

“Logic dictates that giving prior notice to UP before conducting lawful operations and serving warrants impedes law enforcement,” he continued.

On Tuesday, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, another UP alumnus, said President Duterte supports the decision of the DND to end the 1989 UP-DND Accord to supposedly protect the youth from recruitment activities of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).