The Western Visayas Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict VI (RTF-ELCAC 6) will continue to hold dialogues with willing state universities and colleges (SUCs) as well as reach out to schools under the Department of Education (DepEd) with confirmed recruitment activities by communist terrorist groups (CTGs).
In a phone interview on Tuesday, Associate Provincial Prosecutor Flosemer Chris I. Gonzales, who also sits as chair of the Legal Cooperation Cluster (LCC) of the task force, said the task force has already joined separate dialogues initiated by the Aklan State University (ASU) in Banga, Aklan; Filamer Christian University (FCU) in Roxas City, Capiz; and Central Philippine University (CPU) in this city.
These three schools were among those mentioned by the NTF-ELCAC as the target of NPA recruitment and radicalization.
“There’s a commitment on the part of universities to protect the university. They will undertake measures to prevent infiltration by the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army) to conduct recruitment in their schools,” Gonzales said.
There were also “initiatory talks” with the Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) Capiz State University (CAPSu), and the University of Antique (UA).
Meantime, the RTF ELCAC, through Gonzales, also released a statement hitting Kabataan Party-list Rep. Sarah Elago who posted on her Facebook page that the dialogue with ASU will be included as among the incidents of “red-tagging” in universities and schools.
Elago, in her post, said that red-tagging should be investigated and stopped as it serves as a threat and sends a chilling effect on the rights of youth to exercise their freedom to express and organize, among others.
Gonzales said that Elago has a wrong premise because it was the university that invited the regional task force to a dialogue.
“As a result of that dialogue, the ASU has issued a statement to protect their students and the institution from all forms of infiltration, recruitment, and radicalization by any or all terrorist organizations, including the CPP-NPA. It was voluntary on the part of the university to issue a statement against the CPP-NPA,” he said, adding that they recognized the need to protect their students.
He added Elago made the post on red-tagging without reading the statement of ASU.
Gonzales, citing the Supreme Court decision, also said that there is no such a thing as red-tagging.
ASU in its statement, also made it clear that “they shall respect and protect at all times the rights of their students and faculty to freely express their thoughts, ideas, beliefs, and opinions”.
ASU said that they will condemn any form of violent extremism, terrorism, and the deceptive recruitment of their students and their personnel by any organization that espouses violence, terrorism, and ideology that aims to destroy or threaten the freedom and the peace of this country and the government, he added.
Gonzales said Elago seems to make it appear that the Kabataan Party-list does not want the RTF-ELCAC to engage the school through the dialogue, adding that they have no idea as to why.
“This is ironic because the advocacy of the Kabataan Party-list is for the welfare and interest of the youth. But then again, they could not even condemn the recruitment of the youth by the CPP-NPA,” he said.
Gonzales said they have data to prove that in Western Visayas a lot of minors were recruited by the CPP-NPA. Based on affidavits executed by former rebels, many of them were recruited when they were still minors.
He added that if the party-list represented by Elago is sincere, then they should condemn the CPP-NPA.
“If you cannot find it in your heart to condemn the atrocities of the CPP-NPA and you are finding it difficult to fight for the rights of a trafficked child who was forced to join the CPP-NPA as a child warrior, then maybe, your Kabataan party-list is not really sincere in protecting and upholding the rights of the millions of Filipino youth whose future depends on how we protect them from all forms of violence and terrorism-related activities. You must, at this point, consider giving up your seat in Congress since you cannot fight for the rights of those whom your Party-List has intended to protect,” part of the RTF-ELCAC statement said.
Meantime, Major General Eric Vinoya, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry (Spearhead) Division (3ID) and the chairman of RTF-ELCAC’s Peace, Law Enforcement and Development Support (PLEDS) Cluster, emphasized the importance of the dialogue between RTF-ELCAC 6 and the academe in “understanding the deceptive maneuvers of the CPP-NPA to infiltrate schools”.
“Communication is the key to understand the problem. I am glad that state universities are very much willing to open their doors for us to share enlightenment on the deceptive recruitment activity of the communist-terrorist group,” Vinoya said in a statement.
He added that they look forward to “a more resilient and collective effort in alienating the schools from the CPP-NPA and allow the institutions to mold promising young individuals into worthy citizens of this country”. (PNA)
