PNP Chief Debold Sinas vows the law will be observed at all times regardless of the termination of the accord.
The United States has just sent its own authoritarian populist into retirement. Unfortunately there are still too many countries with leaders who have autocratic tendencies.
Notable is Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines who is famous for condoning the use of death squads against drug users and other people he doesn’t like. His government has also suppressed news media outlets which have tried to hold him accountable for his abuses of power.
Duterte’s latest anti-democratic exploit is to terminate an agreement which prohibited the military and police from entering university campuses without first notifying the administrations of the universities.
The pretext for breaking this agreement is that Duterte alleges that a communist insurgent group called the New People’s Army (NPA) is using universities to recruit new members.
In context, this Maoist NPA insurgency has been going on since the reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It has been remarkably unsuccessful at overthrowing the government since the era of the first moon landing in 1969. This is a contrast to the non-violent People Power revolution of 1986 which actually dethroned Marcos.
In any case, the Duterte régime is using the NPA as an excuse to suppress any opposition to him on campuses. Duterte and his cronies have resorted to “red-tagging” which is a form of blacklisting which is similar to what happened in the US during the red scare era dominated by the witch-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
University of the Philippines Diliman is currently a hot spot for Duterte’s attempts to quash opposition to him. Rappler details the fallout from the régime’s efforts to red-tag UP-Diliman alumni as NPA members.
UP's Nemenzo: With intel funds, 'unthinkable' for AFP to make 'baseless accusations'
