CAMP CAPINPIN, Tanay, Rizal — Three minors who were recruited by the communist terrorist group New People’s Army as fighters were among those who surrendered to the military after a mass defection to the government last week.
One of the child-warriors, a 17-year-old girl, said that she was forced by the rebels to join their ranks after she was forbidden to leave a terrorist camp when she accompanied her friend in an “exposure”.
Brigadier General Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos Jr., Commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, strongly condemned the recruitment of child-warriors by the NPA and expressed his sympathy to the parents of the minors saying “no form of explanation will justify this dastardly act of putting Filipino minors in harm’s way.”
According to Burgos, there are written and unwritten rules in warfare that gives emphasis to the protection of women and children.
“We condemn in strongest sense the NPAs’ evil act of violating our children’s innocence,” Burgos said.
“Saving the youth from deception and recruitment of the NPAs and other lawless elements has been the subject of a recent senate inquiry and has become one if the Duterte administration’s priorities,” he added.
It was discovered during the public hearing at the Senate that several progressive party list groups have been acting as recruitment fronts of the terrorist group and have since been the subject of numerous parents’ pleas to return their children after their alleged abduction.
Burgos ended his statement by committing the “Jungle Fighters’ full military might in support to the entire government bureaucracy’s thrust to end local communist insurgency, including the NPA terrorists’ heinous act of recruiting and employing child-warriors.”
The two-day exodus of NPA members from Quezon Province last week saw 26 former rebels being enrolled in the government’s Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program or E-CLIP after turning over 14 firearms to combined elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
They are expected to receive the initial Php65,000, representing the immediate and livelihood assistance from the government, within four weeks. These are on top of the housing, employment, health care and scholarship benefits which they can avail after satisfying the requirements set forth by the program.
Lt. Gen. Gilbert I Gapay, Commander of the AFP’s Southern Command, attributed the series of accomplishments to the recent activation of Quezon’s Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
“Just several weeks after its activation, we can already feel the effects of our convergence of efforts” which, according to him, “led to the reduction of 26 NPA fighters and 14 firearms that could be used to coerce and threaten our people and violate their right to live peaceful lives”, said Lt Gen Gapay.
He also called on the “few remaining NPA terrorists to lay down your arms, enjoy the benefits provided under the government’s E-CLIP and be part of the solution rather than the problem so that altogether we may finally end the five decades of internal conflict which has caused so much suffering to our people.”
The child-warriors have been brought to the attention of DSWD for proper disposition and professional attention so that the victims may quickly recover from the physical and psychological trauma that they suffered after being forced to carry arms despite their innocence.
Their names are being withheld in accordance to existing laws of the land to protect not only their privacy but also their security from possible NPA aggressive actions following their surrender. (2nd Infantry Division)
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