Sexual assault at UP highlights threats to campus security
File photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — Security measures at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, would be reviewed while more campus police would be deployed to “areas with a history of being dangerous” after a student was attacked and sexually assaulted by an outsider on campus on July 1.
“We want to assure the community that we are very conscious about their safety and security,” Chancellor Edgardo Vistan II told the Inquirer on Monday. “We know we can do better in making the campus safe and secure for our students.”
He said they were also reassessing blind spots and putting up more security outposts, especially on long stretches of roads inside the campus.
A statement from his office on Monday also confirmed the attack.
“The UPD administration has been working with police authorities for the immediate apprehension of the suspect and closely coordinating with the survivor to provide all necessary assistance,” it read.
The student was sexually assaulted by a knife-wielding man on Ylanan Street around 11 p.m. on Saturday. Vistan said that she was being treated in a hospital and had also been provided with counselors.
Wake-up call
In a separate statement, the Commission on Higher Education said that it was extending assistance to the student and her family as its chair, Prospero de Vera III, called the assault a “wake-up call” for UP to reexamine its security regulations.
“This despicable criminal act is a wake-up call for [UP] to review and rationalize its security and safety policies, including its operational engagement with the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies in order to make the UP Community safe and secure,” said De Vera, who is also a member of the UP Board of Regents.
He ordered the state university to provide assistance to the survivor and to tap the PNP in identifying and apprehending “all those responsible for this reprehensible act of violence.”
The case has revived interest in the still abrogated UP-Department of National Defense accord which used to ban state forces from entering the campus without the university’s permission.
However, Student Regent Siegfred Severino was not keen on the idea of allowing the police to enter the campus for the sake of security since the PNP was “actually a perceived threat to students.”
“The best way forward really is for the government to increase UP’s budget so it can mobilize its own police force so they can do their job better,” he said, referring to the UPD Police.
In November, UP’s official student publication, the Philippine Collegian, reported that the UPD Police only had 19 members to protect the nearly 24,000 students on the 493-hectare campus. On top of this, they also faced delayed salaries and inadequate compensation.
Budget cuts, however, were preventing the UPD administration from giving them wage increases.
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