Thread by @chiarazambrano

A problem has sprouted at the Brgy UP Campus urban gardening site, visited by AFP soldiers (7th Civil Relations Group) on Jan 20 to make a point about the abrogation of the UP-DND Accord. The AFP claimed the project was theirs. Now barangay officials are denying it. @ABSCBNNews

Maj. Frank Sayson invited media to the garden, purportedly under AFP’s Raise to 1M Gardens project. At the site they then spoke about the UP-DND Accord, saying it made it hard for them to visit. And now that it was junked, they were thinking to expand the garden. @ABSCBNNews

Watch the garden visit here. It was the same day as Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s press conference defending his decision to abrogate the UP-DND Accord, calling UP a breeding ground of communists:

In a statement, Brgy UP Campus chairperson Zenaida Lectura denounced the visit, saying:

1) “Brgy UP Campus has maintained our Urban Garden Project for a number of years now even before this present administration.”

(cont) @ABSCBNNews

2) July 14, AFP wrote to inform them they would be conducting operations on that day til Aug7 on Pook Arboretum. Prior, AFP sought help from Sangguniang Brgy for the Raise to 1M project, “for which they have donated seedlings for our already existing Urban Gardens..” @ABSCBNNews

3) “Their ‘visit’ to the Urban Farming Project at Pook Amorsolo, Pook Village B, Pook Arboretum was not coordinated with the Brgy and they only passed through our office after they were refused entry at the Jacinto Street portal” @ABSCBNNews

4) “We did not know of their purpose and why members of the media were with them for coverage.”

5) “I am appalled that Brgy UP Campus was used for whatever intention of AFP to justify their presence w/in our brgy and for the issue on the abrogation of UP-DND Accord.” @ABSCBNNews

6) “The Sangguniang Barangay maintains that [our projects] do not involve the AFP and we welcomed and accepted their donations with the belief [it was for] humanitarian reasons”

7) “Brgy UP Campus will not be used for whatever agenda the AFP has for their ‘visit’” @ABSCBNNews

Kagawad Danilo Arceo, who went with the AFP team that day, also made a statement saying he was asked to meet the group and upon arriving at Pook Amorsolo, saw the media there. The AFP were going to Pook Village B, and he “without malice and in good faith” joined them @ABSCBNNews

Arceo said, “Unknowingly, some soldiers went inside the garden and put up a marker indicating that it was their project.”

He continued, “It never occured to me that they (AFP) will use the said visit with the issue of UP-DND Accord Abrogation.” @ABSCBNNews

Arceo apologized to UP, saying, in all caps, “I HAVE NO INTENTION TO CONTRADICT WITH THE UNIVERSITY’S DECISION.” He adds he will “DEFEND THE UNIVERSITY AGAINST ANY FORM OF HARASSMENT AND STATE TERRORISM.” @ABSCBNNews

For their part, the Maj Sayson used these documents to justify their visit: 1st, a handwritten note sent to Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo on June24 2020, endorsing a request of Brgy UP Campus to make an urban garden “to augment food supy during the pandemic” for 6months @ABSCBNNews

2nd is a 17 July 2020 letter from Brgy UP Campus chair Zenaida Lectura, informing the chancellor that the approved project from June would now start in Malantic S., Pook Amorsolo, Area17, Daang Tubo. It states that the 7th Civil Relations Group would put up nurseries @ABSCBNNews