Over the last months since August 2025, residents of Pook Aguinaldo, Pook Malantic, and Area 17 in Barangay UP Campus, reported experiencing harassment and intimidation from armed and unarmed University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman Blue Guards and police personnel accompanying vehicles attempting to deliver construction materials for the planned Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Park Project. In response, members of the affected communities erected barricades, a symbol of their collective resistance and unity against the project.
The UP SDG Park in Pook Aguinaldo, Pook Malantic, and Area 17 was proposed in 2025, spearheaded by the UP Office of the Vice President for Development (OVPD). Information from the university’s website states that the park is a “flagship sustainability project anchored on the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs”.
While the OVPD claims the project seeks to uplift the community’s living environment, residents argue it would significantly alter their neighborhoods through the construction of facilities such as bike lanes, a golf driving range, and commercialized developments like the proposed Marilag Residences Rental Housing Project and Southern Diliman Gardens rental housing projects.
The UP administration first met with Barangay UP Campus officials on August 6, 2025. The barangay later endorsed the proposal through Barangay Resolution No. 241 on August 20, 2025. However, residents claim they were informed of the project only two months later, after armed personnel were reportedly seen conducting surveillance in the area on October 2, 2025.
The UP administration claims to have conducted 14 consultations, dialogues, and town hall meetings with Pook Aguinaldo residents between August 2025 and January 2026. Farmers and community members dispute this, stating they were never meaningfully consulted before the project was implemented.
Residents fear the development will lead to the eviction and displacement of families who have lived in and cultivated the area for decades. Community organizations estimate that around 1,000 families would be affected by the proposed demolition, while more than 20 hectares of agricultural land will be converted.
Despite the community’s resistance, UP Vice President for Development Daniel C. Peckley Jr. reportedly stated during a May 13 dialogue that the administration does not need residents’ consent to proceed because UP holds legal rights over the land. In response, Antonio Dizon, a 71-year-old local resident and farmer, noted that his ancestors began farming the area long before the university moved its main campus from Manila to Diliman in 1949.
Residents have also documented incidents of harassment, dismantling of barricades, violent dispersal, and the destruction of property and crops by UP Blue Guards and police forces. Despite these actions, barricades set up by residents of Pook Malantic, Pook Aguinaldo, Pook Libis, and Area 17 remain in place to resist direct attempts by UP to evict them.
“Sustainable development should not entail displacement of residents, the destruction of crops, and the disregard for community residents involved in this project who have long called UP their home,” stated BahAGUI Nating Isko, a network of UP Diliman student-advocates for the SDG Park-affected communities.
We call on the UP Diliman administration to halt and reconsider the UP SDG Park Project. We urge the university to uphold the rights, welfare, and meaningful participation of affected communities throughout the decision-making process.
It is ironic that the park is named SDG park. The SDGs rallying call is ‘leave no one behind’ yet the SDG park will leave people homeless and without livelihood.
Development should never come at the cost of people’s rights. Genuine development is achieved by listening and working alongside communities, and ensuring that no one is left behind.#
#LeaveNoOneBehind #SDGs #AssertPeoplesRights