State forces once again stepped onto the grounds of UP Diliman (UPD).
On Thursday, a total of seven members of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) visited Quezon Hall–UP System’s seat of governance–after their drone “accidentally” landed in the parking lot.
An unfinalized incident report obtained by the Collegian from UPD Police (UPDP) and Star Special Corporate Security Management, Inc., the agency handling Quezon Hall’s security, revealed that a surveillance drone landed on the building’s backdoor parking lot at around 1 p.m.
Two members of QCPD’s Tactical Motorcycle Riders Units (TMRU) carrying rifles asked for the drone back but were denied by the guards on duty. The campus security standard procedure obligates the guards to turn over the drone to UPDP’s headquarters first.
But before the drone was brought to UPDP, a uniformed police officer came as a backup with the same request, along with two others in civilian clothes who introduced themselves as representatives of QCPD’s Camp Karingal and the pilots of the drone.
Jose Hementera, one of the guards who confiscated the drone, told the Collegian that QCPD asked to retrieve the drones without the required documentation because the latter was conducting exercises outside of the campus.
“Sabi nu’ng isang naka-uniporme, masyado daw kasing mataas yung nilipad ng drone tapos mahangin kaya napunta dito [back door of Quezon Hall], tapos na-lowbat na din kaya hindi na nila na-control,” Hementera said.
Camp Karingal’s representatives insisted in the report that the drone was for surveillance exercises they were conducting along Commonwealth Avenue. But one of the guards who asked to remain anonymous said that one of the two TMRU men dismantled some parts of the drone before the guards had a chance to inspect it.
Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs Roehl Jamon said that the incident raised some suspicions on their end.
“Ang convenient naman na nag-drone testing sa Commonwealth [Avenue] tapos mahangin kaya napunta dito. Kasi napunta daw yung drone out of their range,” Jamon told the Collegian.
The drone was returned to QCPD on the same day.
In recent years, infringement upon UP’s campus security heightened with multiple sightings of state forces and red-tagging of members of the UP community. These came after the unilateral abrogation of the UP-Department of National Defense Accord.
But a similar pact between UP and the Department of Interior and Local Government–which oversees police districts–remains in place. The agreement still prohibits members of the police from entering any UP campus without prior notification to university officials. ●
