DELA ROSA: I AM NOT ANTI-UP, I AM ANTI-CPP-NPA-NDF

Senator Ronald 'Bato' Dela Rosa has expressed high respect for the country's premier state university following his lone abstention on the adoption of the proposed resolution welcoming the dialogue between the defense department and the University of the Philippines.

In explaining his decision to abstain on the adoption of Proposed Senate Resolution No. 616 which welcomes the Department of National Defense's (DND) decision to have a dialogue with the officials of the University of the Philippines (UP) and urging both parties to revisit the agreement, Dela Rosa made it clear that he is not, in any way, against the state university, its students and officials.

"For the record, I am not anti-UP, I am anti-CPP-NPA-NDF. I respect UP as breeding ground for the best and brightest minds that this country has produced," Dela Rosa clarified.

The Mindanaoan senator and former top cop also emphasized his decades-long fight against the ideologies of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its armed wing, the New Peoples Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).

"My decision for not supporting the proposed resolution should not be interpreted that I am against UP. My vote and this manifestation are a testament of my lifelong battle against the ideologies of CPP-NPA," Dela Rosa noted.

"I cannot think of any benefits for our country for their existence. Many police officers and military personnel have been killed in the hands of this communist-terrorist group," he added.

Meanwhile, Dela Rosa urged UP to always be open to ideas coming not just from the leftists, but those coming from the government as well.

"I have known UP as a fertile ground that cultivates free thinking. It encourages ideas coming from the left, right or center. It welcomes wide range of discourses that redound to the welfare of the youth. I am quite puzzled now why they are resisting ideologies from the right and center of the political spectrum," Dela Rosa noted.

For over 30 years, Dela Rosa said, the communist rebels have taken advantage of its 1989 agreement with the DND by recruiting young and promising minds to be their combatants against the government.

"It is a sad reality that the CPP-NPA took undue advantage of the 1989 Agreement between UP and DND. With this protective mantle, this leftist group randomly recruited young and brilliant students from this premier University to be members of their organization, and served as its juvenile frontliners in fighting the government." Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, has led several public hearings in 2019 on the alleged recruitment of minors by leftist groups where parents and communist rebel returnees testified that the CPP-NPA-NDF recruited minors for their armed struggle to topple the government.

In its report, the committee underscored the need for police visibility around and within the UP campus premises.

Dela Rosa also emphasized that the presence of the military and police inside UP will not curtail academic freedom. To the contrary, it will serve as protection against the deceit of the communists.

"Ang presensya ng pulis o militar, kung kailangan, sa loob ng kampus ay hindi para kitilin ang academic freedom sa Pamantasan ng Pilipinas... Ngunit kailangan din bantayan na hindi mapasok ng mga taong may makakaliwang pilosopiya ang naturang paaralan para di na makapag hikayat pa ng kabataan na maliligaw ng landas tungo sa komunismo," Dela Rosa said.