The recent “declaration of cooperation” between the University of the Philippines (UP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) does not violate academic freedom and is consistent with the mandate of UP as the county’s premier institution of higher learning.
UP president Angelo Jimenez issued this statement on Wednesday to address concerns aired by certain sectors from the UP community.
The UP-AFP declaration signed last August 8, 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,” Jimenez explained.
“Any activity undertaken shall be mutually agreed upon by both participants,” the UP president noted.
Jimenez emphasized that the state university 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’s renowned scholarship.”
The UP Center for Integrative Development Studies (UP CIDS) will be leading the latest collaborative effort. “UP CIDS is free to pursue research interests with AFP in areas that are relevant to UP’s role, mission and mandate,” Jimenez said.
“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.”
Under the agreement, UP CIDS will deliver on the following commitments:
1. share its technical expertise through resource persons for the successful conduct of forums and workshops;
2. solicit articles from AFP personnel for submission to the UP CIDS-published Philippine Journal of Public Policy, subject to peer-review procedures;
3. be invited as guest-editors to review article submissions to the Quarterly Digest of the AFP Office of Strategic Studies and Strategy Management (OSSM);
4. organize dissemination of UP CIDS research and conduct capacity building for AFP OSSSM personnel and affiliates in relation to strategic studies and security; and
5. host AFP personnel visits, exchanges, and research fellowships. Both parties also affirmed a common commitment to dialogue and intellectual freedom.
UP academic officials and UP CIDS researchers are willing to clarify questions and doubts through an open dialogue particularly with critics of the declaration, Jimenez said.
“We welcomed this cooperation with the AFP because UP’s strength in academics and research can serve as an instrument of national unity,’’ he added. “Our policy is engagement. The national defense establishment as an institution is not an enemy.”
Jimenez also mentioned that AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro are both from UP.
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.
In May 2023, the AFP and UP Manila signed a five-year Memorandum of Agreement for the training of civilian and military dentists at the UP College of Dentistry.
The history department of UP Diliman, on the other hand, co-published books on Philippine military history with the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office, an attached agency of the Department of National Defense.
