ONE, IF NOT the main, source of the CPP/NPA/NDF for recruits into their insurgency movement are the campuses of colleges and universities where, in the guise of “student activism”, gullible students are groomed and enticed to join leftists organizations i.e. League of Filipino Students (LFS), College Editors Guild, etc.
Those who have potentials to be armed fighters of the CPP/NPA/NDF are eventually brought to their training camps in the hinterlands for immersion and indoctrination to finally become armed fighters. Those who don’t make the grade become the noisy “useful idiots” you see in almost all rallies. I’ll park here two concrete examples of that scenario.
A few years back a member of the CPP/NPA killed in an encounter with government troops was identified by his parents as Malvin Christian V. Cruz of Oton, Iloilo.
Cruz, 21, also known in the movement as alias “Lean/Lucas”, was a 1st Year Bachelor of Arts in Statistics student at the University of the Philippines Visayas – Miag-ao campus where he was misled into joining the NPA.
Before joining the CPP/NPA, Cruz was an active member of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and IBON Foundation.
In the NPA, he was a team leader of Squad 3, Suyak Platoon, Southern Front, Komiteng Rehiyon-Panay.
Malvin Cruz was 15 years old, according to former rebel Kate Raca, when he was allegedly recruited.
Meanwhile, Tagum City’s Regional Trial Court Branch 2 convicted France Castro, representative of leftist party-list Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), of child abuse in a case involving 14 minors in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
Castro and several others were accused of holding 14 students at the Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Inc. (STTICLCI) where they supposedly held a solidarity mission, certainly not about Tolstoy to Tinkerbelle but the withering away of the state.
To save our children from predators, the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) joined forces with the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) to protect Filipino youth from terror-grooming and violent extremism.
According to, COCOPEA president Rev. Father Albert Delvo, their 1,500 educational institutions members stressed the importance of collaboration among all stakeholders in fostering peace and development.
Of course, NTF-ELCAC welcomes COCOPEA as a Private Sector Representative in the taskforce’s Executive Committee.
COCOPEA’s involvement allows private educational institutions to work closely with the government in providing educational opportunities to communities in conflict-affected areas. It bolsters the taskforce’s focus on reducing educational gaps addressing longstanding issues exploited by the CPP/NPA/NDF in recruiting children in the countryside and urban areas.
Indeed, collaboration between COCOPEA and NTF-ELCAC underscores a shared commitment to creating safe learning spaces that respects academic freedom. In this landmark partnership, both COCOPEA and the government through the NTF-ELCAC remain dedicated to the role of education in building a peaceful and resilient nation.
Meanwhile, NTF-ELCAC’s Legal Cooperation Cluster denounces erroneous claims on the indictment of Frenchie Mae Cumpio, Marielle Domequil, Alexander Philip Abinguna, Mira Legion, and Marissa Cabaljao (a.k.a. Tacloban 5) by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as baseless, fabricated and mere trumped-up charges.
This self-proclaimed “Tacloban 5” were arrested following a legitimate operation of the PNP/CIDG in a Tacloban City safe house. The CIDG recovered illegal firearms, explosives and money amounting to P557,360, prompting the DOJ filing charges for illegal possession of firearms and explosives and terrorism financing against the “Tacloban 5.
The Anti-Money and Laundering Council (AMLC) also filed a civil forfeiture petition before Manila RTC Branch 18 that the money seized was to facilitate the distribution of funds and other logistical supplies, such as ammunition, to members of the CPP/NPA.
The “revolution” has withered away. Joma Sison must be spinning in his grave./PN
