By DANIEL SEBASTIANNE DAIZ & ANGELA MARIE HINLO

The national university is under attack. From an impending budget cut, campus militarization to administrative intervention, the university is being besieged by forces outside and within the campus.

As student leaders from all over the UP system once again convene for the 51st General Assembly of Student Councils, it is all the more imperative for the entire student body to form unities and campaigns to tackle these pressing issues.

JANUARY

The year began with the Department of National Defense’s (DND) unilateral abrogation of the 1989 UP-DND Accord. The accord prohibits the presence of military on campus without notifying UP officials beforehand. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, in a letter dated January 15, told UP President Danilo Concepcion that the DND is terminating the agreement because the university is supposedly being used as a recruitment ground for the CPP/NPA.

The UP administration engaged in dialogues with the state’s security forces to discuss “possible areas of cooperation” to supposedly ensure a secure learning environment. Along this, lawmakers have pushed for the institutionalization of the accord by including it in the UP Charter. Measures to this effect remain pending at both houses of Congress.

FEBRUARY

UP alumnus Chad Booc was illegally nabbed in a raid of a Lumad school at the University of San Carlos in Cebu. Booc, along with six other individuals, was serving as a volunteer teacher when police barged into the campus for a supposed “rescue mission.” They were eventually released in May following the dismissal of their case.

Shortly after the said incident, campus security was likewise fortified in UP Diliman (UPD) where a Lumad school was also held that time.

MARCH

Campus publications’ social media accounts received messages from fake accounts calling its editors “wanted terrorist reporters.” The said messages showed photos of current and previous members of the Collegian, along with those from other UP student publications, collaged with a death threat if they continued their duty in their publications.

UVLê workers called for their regularization and better benefits as they staged an online protest on the website itself. The UPD administration called the incident “defacement” and told the Collegian then that an investigation was underway. But for labor unions inside UP, the protest had just shown the struggles many contractual workers have to deal with.

APRIL

The UP administration declined to implement a system-wide academic ease amidst rising COVID-19 cases and the imposition of lockdown measures across the greater Manila area. As a response to the students’ clamor, the UP admin merely reiterated its previous policies regarding deadlines, attendance, and on the no-fail policy.

Dr. Teodoro Herbosa resigned as UP’s executive vice president after receiving flak from netizens for his controversial “death by community” pantry tweet. Before his resignation, Herbosa had already said rape jokes and red-baiting remarks on his social media posts.

MAY

UP security forces flagged more than 30 houses at Area 17 in Barangay UP Campus as “illegal structures,” and ordered the residents to self-demolish their homes before the authorities do. Residents, however, barricaded their area and successfully prevented the impending demolition operations.

The UP Office of Community Relations (OCR) has opted to conduct an ocular inspection in Pook Arboretum where the UP Philippine General Hospital (PGH) Diliman was proposed to be built. But residents have barred UP officials from entering the area, and conducted a dialogue with the OCR instead, where it has been found out that the UP admin still has no plans on the relocation of the affected residents.

Fire razed the operating room supply area of the PGH. No one was hurt from the incident, but the fire resulted in almost P200-million in damages, said PGH spokesperson Dr. Jonas Del Rosario.

JUNE

Student publications Sulô and SINAG were attacked during the 2021 student council elections. College of Education's Sulô was unfairly called “narrow-sighted, imprudent, and biased” by their local student council while SINAG, under the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, was accused by a candidate of having misrepresented his remark during the college's miting de avance.

UP Solidaridad, the systemwide alliance of student publications, condemned these unfair accusations and stressed that campus journalists have a responsibility to write what they deem important for the students and the university.

JULY

Dean Joel Tan-Torres of College of Business Administration (CBA) was suspended for 90 days. He has also been charged with violations of university rules, despite his lawyer's submission of a memorandum to some UP officials explaining the irregularities on the complaint filed against him by CBA faculty members. 

Effective July 9, Vice Chancellor for Administration Adeline Pacia was appointed officer-in-charge of the college while Tan-Torres is suspended. Earlier this year, Tan-Torres’s application for a faculty appointment was rejected.

Meanwhile, limited physical classes began for UP Manila’s College of Allied Medical Professions (CAMP) and College of Dentistry (CD). To date, the government has only approved face-to-face classes for five UP colleges: CAMP, CD, College of Medicine (CM), College of Nursing (CN), and College of Public Health (CPH). CM students have been able to hold internships since November 2020. CPH and CN will commence their limited physical classes this coming academic year.

AUGUST

Ajay Lagrimas, UPD University Student Council councilor, has been receiving death threats. He had also been informed that he was being “closely monitored” by a local government unit in Bicol, according to his family.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) proposed a P1.3-billion budget cut for UP’s budget in 2022. Only P20.1 billion has been allocated by the DBM to the university, or around half of UP’s P36.5-billion budget proposal.

The PGH, owned and funded by UP, may also suffer from a P1.2-billion budget cut following DBM’s proposed allocation for the hospital amounting to only P5.7 billion with no funding for infrastructure or equipment.

UP Diliman students will only have one round of pre-enlistment for the first semester of AY 2021–2022 through the CRS. This is contrary to the usual two batch runs of pre-enlistment done before classes start. UP Los Baños students, meanwhile, had their pre-enlistment postponed by one day due to technical difficulties in the SAIS. ●