Youth group cries foul over ‘military espionage’

From the Sun Star-Cagayan de Oro (Sep 11): Youth group cries foul over ‘military espionage’

 WITH previous cases of red-tagging that led to untimely deaths of student activists, the League of Filipino Students in northern Mindanao (LFS-10) is worried that members of its group may be victims of surveillance by the military who they suspected of “spying” on them.

Vennel Francis Chenfoo, LFS-10 spokesperson, said the group condemns the continuous surveillance and harassment that have been happening to some of their members and alleged the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to be behind these activities.

"We condemn the espionage and infiltration the AFP is desperately doing against our organization, the tailing of our members and monitoring of our headquarters and even the homes of our leaders," said LFS in an emailed statement sent to Sun*Star Cagayan de Oro.

Chenfoo stressed spying poses a threat which curtailed both their civil and political rights due to the Philippine Army's "blatant disregard" of the Constitution.

Although relying on a few pieces of evidence, the youth group has called leaders of the AFP to put a stop to these activities.

The group's statement, however, was released following an official from the military's 4th Infantry Division (4ID) who said in a radio interview that the "NPA raid of a guard post in Bukidnon last August 30 can be attributed to the resurgence of the youth and student movement in the universities of northern Mindanao."

"We are particularly alarmed of the army's statement that even our parents were warned by them to prohibit us from joining activist organization," the statement read.

Chenfoo has called this red-tagging, an accusation of being a front of the New People's Army (NPA).

Major Christian Uy, 4ID spokesperson, told Sun*Star Cagayan de Oro that there is no truth to this claim of the LFS adding that he had called for the youth to stay away from groups that cannot contribute to the development of the nation.

"We don't have a perfect government and society to live with. But as young as they are, they have to look into the problems of this society. In joining organizations, join those which are helping solve the problems in our country and not those that carry arms and go against us," Uy said.

"[We] students do not have any choice but to organize our ranks and assert our right to an accessible, scientific, nationalist and a mass-oriented education. We have to link our movement to a broader people's movement seeking for an end to the current social and political crisis," Chenfoo said of their choice to radical idealism because they are robbed of rights to a decent future following the budget cuts in state colleges and universities.

"[The military] wanted to mold us as a passive and non-thinking dimwit incapable of speaking up. We will not be cowed. We are operating in the broad daylight. We are not members of the NPA," he added.

Rommel Limjoco, an active official of LFS in the region, claimed he was spied on by people who he believed are members of the military because of their built.

Around March this year, a man in his mid-30s inquired at a “sari-sari” store near his boarding house in Iligan City asking the vendor of Limjoco's demographic information.

Without the knowledge of the man who inquired, Limjoco was just right behind him when he asked the vendor.

"Since I know the vendor, I non-verbally told her not to say that it was me who the man was looking for. I was surprised because he asked of my whereabouts, where I live, what time I go home, etc.," Limjoco told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.

Around April, another man in his mid-30s introduced himself as an LFS coordinator for Davao while he was visiting a barber shop in Iligan.

According to the statement, the man asked the owner of the shop the current officers of the formation in MSU-IIT. The owner was a faculty member of the History department at a state university in this city.

"Judging from his well-built physique, the man appeared to be too old to be a student-coordinator and was more of a military officer.

Organization-wise, the LFS formations in Davao have all the means to communicate may it be in email or phone with the formations in Lanao to answer such queries," it added.

On June 20, 2014, the computer set and many organizational documents and flash drives were carted away by unidentified suspects at the LFS office in Bagong Silang, Iligan City.

Chenfoo also was a victim of spying when two unidentified men once asked his neighbors of his whereabouts last August 19.

In 2001, Reimon Guran, a political science student and a spokesperson of LFS-Southern Luzon, was shot dead after he was about to board a bus.

In 2006, Cris Hugo, a journalism student and LFS national council member, was shot dead in Legazpi City, Albay.

Both deaths of LFS officers linked them being mistaken as NPA insurgents.

http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cagayan-de-oro/local-news/2014/09/11/youth-group-cries-foul-over-military-espionage-364906