MANILA — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Wednesday a joint team composed of police and military officers should be formed to dialogue with the heads of colleges and universities earlier tagged as alleged recruiting grounds of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
“My suggestion is that it should be a joint AFP-PNP (Armed Forces of the Philippines-Philippine National Police) (team) that will (hold the) dialogue with the heads of the universities, so that we can understand why we are saying that, and of course, so we will understand why they are denying that they are not the recruitment grounds of the CPP-NPA,” Lorenzana said.
He said they are still waiting for the intelligence reports to determine the number of schools, where alleged rebel recruitment is ongoing.
“We will see. We are still waiting for the intelligence report section people to inform us what (other) universities (are allegedly serving as) recruitment grounds of the CPP-NPA,” the defense chief added.
Last week, the AFP identified these schools as the University of the Philippines (UP) – Diliman, UP-Manila; Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Sta. Mesa; Ateneo de Manila University; De La Salle University; University of Santo Tomas; Adamson University; Far Eastern University; University of the East (UE) – Recto; UE-Caloocan; Emilio Aguinaldo College; Eulogio “Amang” Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology; San Beda College; Lyceum of the Philippines; University of Makati; Caloocan City College (now the University of Caloocan City); University of Manila; and the Philippine Normal University.
“We have reports of concerned parents communicating to us their worries about the ‘brainwashing’ activities that their children were subjected to, like film showing; video teleconferencing with a terrorist leader like Jose Ma. Sison; and Martial Law reenactments during break time of high school students, etc.,” AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo earlier said.
Arevalo added that many parents, especially those who are also in the military, are wary of these creeping indoctrination of their children that tend to draw them into activism and radicalism.
“Beware of the wolves in sheep’s clothing. (With this), we caution school administrations and parents about some members of the NPA infiltrating the schools,” he added. (Priam Nepomuceno/PNA)
