Signed on the 21st of August 1990 by then-PUP President, Dr. Nemesio Prudente, and then-Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary, Hon. Fidel V. Ramos, the PUP-DND Accord also known as Prudente-Ramos Accord affirms and recognizes “the right of all students to freely advocate their ideas in the campus with utmost tolerance, understanding, and guarantee, without the fear of interference, and intervention or repression from the State or any of its agencies and instrumentalities”. With yesterday’s news about Duterte Youth Partylist Rep. Ducielle Cardema’s remark on her call to, similar with UP, the PUP-DND Accord be terminated, it is crucial for us to be aware of what this Accord is all about and its importance to our Academic Freedom.
PUP, as one of many universities that bastioned activism against the dictatorship of late President Ferdinand Marcos, had always been at the fiery eyes of the administration being its political critics more so in the recent years of President Duterte’s regime. Connected to the attacks in the University of the Philippines, the University had also gained its protection against any military and police forces who wants to silence the ideas of the students through the Soto-Enrile Accord. And before a decade passed after the end of the Martial Law, then-PUP President, Dr. Prudente had finally closed an agreement with the DND.
Academic Freedom The PUP-DND Accord starts with both parties recognizing and affirming the Academic Freedom inside the University with lines like, “RESPECTING the right of the academic community to enjoy the freedom of thoughts, conscience, religion, expression, assembly, and association, as well as the right to liberty and security of person and liberty of movement”. This reassures that the accord including those who have signed on it as well as the institution they belong to, have truly comprehended what Academic Freedom is all about—to have the students or academic instructors the freedom of advocating their ideas without any fear of their safety.
This Accord highlights that on no. 2 of the agreement, “No member of the AFP, or the PC/INP, or CAFGU shall enter the premises of any of the campuses or branch or extension units of the PUP except in cases of hot pursuit and similar occasions of emergency”. This protects the movements done inside or within the premises of the University, although this was controversially been breached several times during this administration such as the recent event during the Mandatory Random Drug Testing last August of 2019 where vehicles driven by identified Police personnel were promptly permitted inside the University, the Accord still stands as the main protection of the progressive students.
Importance Following the 15th of January 2020 letter received by UP who also possessed an alike accord with the DND who informs them about the termination of this agreement, PUP faces the same threat after Rep. Darcema’s statement in connection with the said issue. “Itong UP-DND Accord & PUP-DND Accord ay klarong-klaro na special treatment na inabuso na, sa tagal ng panahon,” she said. “Kung sa 400 plus campuses ng iba’t ibang SUCs ng bansa wala namang ganyang accord pero peaceful naman, tama lamang tanggalin na ang special treatment na yan na naaabuso rin naman,” she added. Yet it may also be unbeknownst to her and all of Pres. Duterte’s allies that this Accord serves as existing protection as well as one of the pillars of Excellence on how students from these Universities become socially critical more so on condemning the mishaps and mishandles of the administration to its responsibilities to the Filipino people. It is embedded in every right of this democratic country to critic, condemn, voice-out, and make a movement against an incompetent government.
PUP has been one of the most active refuges for student activism since the time of Martial Law. It shares its number with the students who disappear and a notable one is a professor named after a Building inside the campus today, he is Charlie Del Rosario. Del Rosario disappeared at the height of student agitation and protest actions during the Marcos Regime. He was last seen on the night of March 19, 1971, putting up posters for a forthcoming Movement for a Democratic Philippines (MDP) national congress inside the PCC (now, PUP) campus in Lepanto, Manila. He was expected later that evening at an MDP meeting in Quezon City, but he did not show up. His courage lives as one of many victims in a tyrannic era in our country’s history. One could not know how many innocent victims will lose once this Accord expires, all of it just for exposing the government’s stenches.
And amidst this health crisis, we are facing, most importantly given the fact of recording a new variant of COVID-19 in the country just recently, even a simple person could ask, ‘why do they have all the time to focus on abruptly passing the Anti-Terror Law? Even making a short-term white sand beach in Manila Bay? Or unsolved Philhealth corruption?’. Is it truly for the people’s cause? Or their own sake to cover-up their incompetence?
Once this administration finally silenced its critics, one should only expect for worse. The ending? It relies on us.
Below are the scanned document of the Prudente-Ramos Accord.
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