Members of different student organizations stage a protest in front of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) in Sta. Mesa, Manila on Wednesday. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News
MANILA - Student leaders from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) cried harassment after supposedly receiving threats through a phone call from the office of Duterte Youth Party-list Rep. Ducielle Cardema.
The PUP Office of the Student Regent (OSR) said in a Facebook post that Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral President Jonero Dacula got a call from a person who introduced herself as a staff of Cardema.
The phone call came after the PUP OSR on Wednesday posted photos of Student Regent Ellenor Bartolome and SKP President Dacula standing outside the office of Cardema and holding their position paper on the 1990 agreement between the university and the Department of National Defense.
“Afterwards, a heated discussion sparked with the staff of the Duterte Youth Party-list posing a threat such as “...take it down! Kung hindi, hahanapin namin kayo! Yari kayo sa amin!” threatening the individuals for a possible man hunt which made them at shock,” the PUP OSR said.
The incident prompted the student leaders to go to the National Bureau of Investigation Thursday morning to file their affidavits narrating their phone call with the supposed staff of Duterte Youth.
The supposed harassment happened after PUP student leaders expressed strong opposition to the call of Cardema to scrap the 1990 agreement on limitations of military and police operations inside university premises.
“The phone call was put in a loud speaker and many student-leaders witnessed how the staff blatantly asks to take down the official posts made by the OSR, and directly posing a threat to the individuals,” the PUP OSR said.
In a statement, Duterte Youth Party-list denied the alleged harassment, adding the student leaders were "hospitably allowed" to submit their position paper in their office, as well as to take photos inside and outside their office.
"If they will continue twisting the hospitality that our office has shown them, into their usual leftist propaganda, we will also file the appropriate charges tomorrow," it said.
Cardema's call to revoke the PUP-DND accord was made after the defense department's unilateral termination of the 1989 UP-DND agreement that prohibits state forces from conducting operations inside the state university’s campuses without prior notice to the school administration.
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PUP, PUP Office of the Student Regent, Duterte Youth, Ducielle Cardema, PUP-DND accord