The UP Diliman campus is not simply a popular destination for those engaged in intellectual pursuits. Through the years, it has come to be known as a venue for a diverse range of activities, including political demonstrations, festivals, romantic dates, wedding pictorials, ghost hunting, recreation activities, weekend markets, public art, and even informal urban settlement. On any given day, one might see banners protesting the dismissal of contract janitorial personnel flying high against the pillars of Quezon Hall, UP’s seat of administration; a gaggle of tourists eagerly posing beneath the Oblation, the University’s iconic naked male statue; and groups of people having picnics, jogging, playing soccer, or simply sitting down to chat in and around the famous lagoon and Sunken Garden.
UP has become familiar ground, not just to its students, faculty, and staff, but to almost everyone. “And it is really very difficult to change this situation because it has evolved this way as a public land,” notes Dr. Primitivo Cal, Dean of the School of Urban and Regional Planning (SURP). How the campus space is being used for many other—not necessarily academic—purposes, according to Cal, is a perennial topic in university council meetings. “But, really, there is no unanimous view as to how it should be defined.”
Personally, Cal does not find anything wrong with some of the ways campus grounds have been utilized for extracurricular endeavors. Many activities, such as campus rallies, public discussions, public installation art, the Oblation Run, and even the annual University Fair usually have issues of national significance as themes. He considers all these part of education because they provide learning experiences that can never be taught inside the classroom. “How else would you impart life’s more important lessons to students?” he asks. “Community involvement is important to students in order for them to see early on that there are far greater goals than simply being, say, an engineer or a planner.”
Public Space
The campus’s multifunctional space has a lot to do with the rich culture and history of intellectual exchange that has become synonymous with the University and its graduates. Classrooms, lectures halls, and even the sprawling campus grounds have traditionally served as public spaces where people, regardless of religion, gender, or identity, engage freely and passionately in debates about the most pressing and controversial issues. For instance, the imposing steps fronting the Palma Hall lobby, a popular venue for mass mobilization, teach-ins, and rallies at the height of student activism in the ’60s and ’70s, continue to serve the same functions today.
But public spaces inside the campus also accommodate many other activities. The Palma Hall steps also serve as a tambayan, concert venue, and a favorite spot for TV news crews covering UP events. The University’s Academic Oval, which often plays host to protest marches and arts-related activities, is a convenient route for the much-anticipated Lantern Parade during the Christmas season. The Sunken Garden, a favorite venue for the annual UP Fair, also provides ample space for sports tournaments and outdoor concerts. Inside the campus’s park-like surroundings are pockets which serve as cozy spaces for studying or relaxing alone, or for intimate gatherings. Even comfort rooms inside academic buildings provide a place to sleep, chat, or study in between classes.
With its concert halls, theaters, museums, sports facilities, and landscaped grounds, the campus is a hub of activities catering not only to students and staff, but to the larger population of Quezon City and Metro Manila. The popularity of the campus with the public also impacts nearby areas, encouraging commercial development in surrounding streets and making campus-adjacent areas attractive places to live.
Security risks
In drawing crowds, the campus is also exposed to security risks. “We know that UP Diliman is a community and that some of its members do not necessarily serve its academic mandate,” says Cal. “The campus has neither walls nor fences. Some of its roads serve as public thoroughfares to reach adjacent areas. It is really very difficult to bar entry.”
Cal’s worries are compounded by reports of untoward incidents taking place in the campus and its peripheries. The campus is not new to crime, both petty and serious, and such occurrences are often fodder for print and broadcast police stories.
According to the UP Diliman UPDate, several cases (other than fraternity-related incidents) were extensively covered by the media in recent years, including the kidnap for ransom incident in front of the College of Law, the discovery of the body of a graduating AMA student at the Palma Hall parking lot, and the assassination of labor leader Popoy Lagman by hired gunmen at the driveway of Ang Bahay ng Alumni. In 2003 alone, the UP Diliman Police blotter contained 420 reported incidents, more than half of which involved theft and robbery. Authorities suggest that the actual number of incidents may actually be higher since some crimes are not reported to the police.
Moreover, a considerable portion of the University’s valuable but undeveloped and unprotected properties have been invaded by illegal settlers and squatting syndicates. The very encroachment of illegal settlers, says Cal, already goes against the principle of planning. “Just because we are government land does not mean we can just open ourselves to informal settlers. They are not part of the plan for which the University’s property was intended,” he points out.
In urban planning, a contingency that is not within the scope of an original plan is usually met with some sort of a stop gap or control mechanism. “In this case, for instance, it is important for the University to assert that some of our space is reserved for very specific purposes,” Cal says.
But is UP equipped with mechanisms for enforcement? “Such mechanisms do exist today,” says Cal. Apparently they didn’t always exist.
UP Diliman has actually taken bold measures to contain the growing number of informal settlers in its property with the adoption of the “UPD Policy on Squatters on Campus” last year. The policy statement follows four basic guidelines in dealing with the issue: “1) that demolitions (of illegal structures) be accepted, if not supported, by the academic community as a politically correct option given the result of decades of ambivalence; 2) that these be conducted in the most humane manner possible; 3) that we rule out relocation, on site development and other negotiating stances that alienate land and violate the UP Charter; and 4) that there be planning done to remove the academic core from security agencies’ primary responsibility by exploring the option of developing auxiliary security brigades/building aides attached to the colleges/units and re-engineering the UP Diliman Police (UPDP) so that eventually, the agencies guard the access gates, the peripheral areas and only secondarily, the academic core.”
Regarding the issue of UP’s illegal settlers, however, Cal thinks campus planning should also take into account the following realities—that squatters have already settled on some portions of UP property; that something has to be done; and that the brightest solution may not necessarily mean driving them all away. Nevertheless, he maintains that it is really important for the University to assert its boundaries. He has no qualms about fencing the perimeter of the close to 500-hectare campus, should resources be available. “We can do it on an incremental basis by which fencing would be part of separate small-scale projects. If it is possible for us to delineate our property this way, I don’t see any reason why we should not.”
Dr. Ebinezer Florano, who teaches environmental management at the National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), is also in favor of putting up fences around the campus. “A good administrator would always put the interests of students, staff and faculty members above anything else,” says Florano. “The fact that we cannot regulate who comes in and out of our space makes the entire campus an administrator’s nightmare.”
Sanctioned tolerance
Rallies provide a good example of how relatively easy it is for people to move in and out of the campus. Quezon Hall, for example, is becoming a favorite converging point among political organizations, neighboring urban poor communities, workers, and various other interest groups who have little or nothing to do with the University, during mass actions about issues that may not even concern the University or its officials.
On August 8, for instance, protesters comprising members of the UP Janitors Association (JSA) and their sympathizers formed a picket on the south wing area of Quezon Hall when Care Best International (CBI) was awarded the contract to perform janitorial services for the south sector of the campus. The protesters kept their vigil for several days hoping to make the University intervene and compel the new agency to absorb displaced workers from the previous agency despite the fact that no employer-employee relationship actually exists between UP and the employees of any of the subcontracting agencies. The University adopted a policy of contracting out janitorial and security services since 1984 in compliance with the procurement provisions of RA 9184 (An Act Providing for the Modernization, Standardization and Regulation of Procurement Activities of the Government). Since then, all janitorial services have been rendered by private agencies which compete as independent contractors in a public bidding.
The vigil, which lasted for several days, failed to disrupt the daily operation of Quezon Hall offices but raised obvious security and administrative concerns. Quezon Hall looked no different from an evacuation shelter with the protesters, their families and sympathizers, cooking, dining, sleeping, drying their clothes, and literally cleaning themselves in the picket site.
This indicates, according to Florano, that the University’s image as a bastion of academic freedom and activism is both a blessing and a curse that the UP community has had to accept. But even though he sees no reason for the administration to completely regulate such use of the University’s public space, he believes it will be in everybody’s interest if the campus administrators would be informed of these activities beforehand. This would make it easier for the latter to provide the necessary security for both participants and ordinary bystanders. “Those who now run our campuses were themselves immersed in UP’s activist tradition so I don’t think they will be allergic to such causes,” he says.
Actually, a number of security measures have long been put in place to address these concerns. Memorandum No. 18 issued by former UP President Edgardo J. Angara in 1983 states that “rallies and demos may be held within the University’s premises with no need for a permit from the City/Town Mayor.” But the same memo also specifies that “the University’s own rules and regulations” would govern these activities. The standing policy, based on a July 25, 2003 memorandum issued by then Chancellor Emerlinda Roman, is that “rallies, demonstrations, vigils and other similar activities may be allowed only with written permission of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs.” These activities cannot go beyond six in the evening.
According to Florano, administrative sanctions may sometimes be necessary not only to avert vandalism and anarchy, but also to minimize the impact of disruptions on other activities. A lightning assembly blocking major roads in the Diliman campus, for instance, could easily paralyze the flow of jeepneys plying the Pantranco and Philcoa route. Florano maintains that people should consider everyone’s welfare regardless of where they sit in the intellectual divide. “In Japan, for instance, you cannot just hold rallies whenever or wherever you feel like it,” he says.
The Japanese people, according to Florano, learn early to recognize that they are part of an interdependent society and normally think twice about causing inconvenience especially to spaces deemed public. By contrast, we Filipinos are more aggressive in asserting our individual rights, says Florano, “and public spaces—like those in public universities—are being used as venues for these expressions.”
Symbolic identity
Florano believes that the University as an academic institution is not mandated to serve as a venue for non-academic activities. “But if we are to keep our healthy democratic tradition, the University has to accommodate these activities or we will not be living up to our name as a university of the people.” The significant public role the campus plays is representative of the larger purpose the University serves for the country. The campus is a park. It is a cultural center and meeting place. And more importantly, it is a symbol of academic excellence, civic pride, and the rich and lasting heritage shared by generations of UP alumni. The landscape, the buildings, and the events that take place in these spaces all form part of the collective memory of the institution.
Like Florano, Cal favors the free expression of sentiments, even if the makeshift encampments and protest banners in halls and lobbies can be an eyesore.
“I think these activities should be allowed if they do not violate any law or do not go beyond the basic rights provided in the constitution,” says Cal. “They should be properly recognized, especially in an academic community.”
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