When must democracy end and national security begin?

TWO developments in the government campaign against the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) insurgency should shock us. One is the passage at the House of Representatives of House Bill 20171, which seeks to turn into law the agreement between the University of the Philippines and the Department of National Defense signed years ago banning the entry of security forces into the campuses of the university. The other is the threat from a sizeable number of congressmen and senators to scrap the proposed P28.1-billion budget for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) in the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Sure enough, as is the wont of those in the communist terrorist insurgency, democratic principles are invoked in the developments. The projected ban of security forces from UP campuses is parroted about as a necessary move to uphold academic freedom. Put quite simply, the ban is made to ensure that UP students are never to be disturbed by state interference in the pursuit of their studies.