Woke eruption
The recent ruckus about the demise of academic freedom at the premier state university did not have any basis except for that being generated by certain left-influenced sectors on the campus.
The University of the Philippines (UP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) recently signed a declaration of cooperation, which is normal among government entities. An official said this was consistent with the mandate of the UP as the county’s premier institution of higher learning.
The UP-AFP declaration was signed on 8 August to serve as the initial framework for cooperation, particularly on the conduct of research.
UP president Angelo Jimenez said the deal “won’t curtail academic freedom because UP researchers can choose and define their specific terms of engagement. Any activity undertaken shall be mutually agreed upon by both participants.”
UP had worked with the defense sector in the past as part of a whole-of-society engagement to help inform public policy, influence thinking, and improve lives through UP scholarship.
University think-tank UP Center for Integrative Development Studies (UP CIDS) leads the collaboration and is free to pursue research interests with the only requirement being “conforming to the highest standards of academic rigor in the pursuit of truth.”
A review of the agreement showed nothing about infringing on the rights of students or the academe, but it includes the sharing of technical expertise through resource persons for the successful conduct of forums and workshops; soliciting articles from AFP personnel for submission to the UP CIDS-published Philippine Journal of Public Policy, subject to peer review; being invited as guest editors to review article submissions to the Quarterly Digest of the AFP Office of Strategic Studies and Strategy Management; organizing the dissemination of UP CIDS research and the conduct of capacity building for AFP personnel and affiliates for strategic studies and security; and hosting of AFP personnel visits, exchanges, and research fellowships.
“Our policy is engagement. The national defense establishment as an institution is not an enemy,” Jimenez said.
AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner and Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro are both from UP.
The recently signed declaration is similar to previous research collaborations of the university, which included a memorandum of understanding between the UP College of Engineering and the Philippine National Police Research and Development Center signed in June 2023 involving studies to enhance ballistic defense materials and other cooperation activities.
Percolating politics
The Manila session hall is feared to soon become a boxing arena amid the heated exchanges ongoing among members of the council that have permeated to city employees.
The division is being fueled by the split of former allies, who are expected to mix it up in the elections next year. Brutal exchanges of words that threaten to erupt into fistfights have become a common occurrence.
About three weeks ago, a stocky councilor from District 2 of Tondo challenged a District 5 councilor to rough it up, until cooler heads intervened.
Just last week, a councilor who is a sibling of the mayor and a colleague from District 5 got into a scuffle when the two bumped into each other in the corridor of the session hall.
The incident resulted in the filing of a complaint in the Ethics Committee of the City Council.