THE cooperation agreement between the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will not curtail the academic freedom of its faculty and students.
The UP-AFP Declaration of Cooperation (DOC) was signed on August 8.
“The UP-AFP declaration, which serves as the initial framework to guide future areas of cooperation, won’t curtail academic freedom because UP researchers can choose and define their specific terms of engagement,” UP president Angelo Jimenez said amid concerns raised by certain sectors from the UP community.
“Any activity undertaken shall be mutually agreed upon by both participants,” Jimenez also said, adding: “Both parties also affirmed a common commitment to dialogue and intellectual freedom.”
“We welcome this cooperation with the AFP because UP’s strength in academics and research can serve as an instrument of national unity,’’ Jimenez said.
Jimenez said the UP Center for Integrative Development Studies (CIDS) will lead the endeavor to “pursue research interests with AFP in areas that are relevant to UP’s role, mission and mandate.”
“This in itself is an exercise in academic freedom. The only thing required is conformity to the highest standards of academic rigor in the pursuit of truth,” he added.
Under the agreement, UP CIDS will share its technical expertise through the provision of resource persons for the successful conduct of forums and workshops, solicit articles from AFP personnel for submission to the UP CIDS-published Philippine Journal of Public Policy, subject to peer-review procedures, be invited as guest-editors to review article submissions to the Quarterly Digest of the AFP Office of Strategic Studies and Strategy Management, organize dissemination of UP CIDS research, and conduct capacity building for AFP OSSSM personnel and affiliates in relation to strategic studies and security dialogues.
Jimenez said the university has worked with the defense sector in the past as part of its whole-of-society engagement to help inform public policy, influence thinking, and improve lives.
“The recently signed declaration is similar to previous research collaborations of the university, including the 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 mutual cooperation activities,” he said.
He also cited a May 2023 five-year Memorandum of Agreement between UP Manila and the AFP for the training of civilian and military dentists at the UP College of Dentistry.
The history department of UP Diliman, Jimenez pointed out, also co-published books on Philippine military history with the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, an attached agency of the Department of National Defense.
Jimenez issued the statement after the UP community, composed of students, faculty, and other personnel, denounced his move to sign the agreement with the AFP, saying it “gravely compromised UP’s academic freedom.”
Among those who signed the joint statement against the agreement are the UP Office of the Student Regent, Office of the Faculty Regent, Office of the Staff Regent, Kasama sa UP, and Defend UP Network.
They said Jimenez made the move without consulting with them.
“The signing of this declaration essentially requires the University to be complicit to human rights violations and political oppression. It also essentially legitimizes ongoing suppression of critical voices and progressive initiatives within the University that the military deems inimical to its notion of ‘national security,” they said.
