RTF-ELCAC 6 forges partnership with CPU

From the Philippine Information Agency (Feb 8, 2021): RTF-ELCAC 6 forges partnership with CPU (By Lilibeth A. French)

ILOILO CITY, Feb. 8 (PIA) - - The Regional Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) in Western Visayas and Central Philippine University (CPU) here have forged a partnership following a dialogue held recently.

Members of the RTF-ELCAC 6 engaged top officials of the CPU in Iloilo City led by its President Dr. Teodoro Robles in a one-on-one dialogue on February 4 held at the Ground Floor, Henry Luce III Library on membership recruitment of the CPP-NPA-NDF/CTG among students.

It will be recalled that CPU was among the universities in the region included in the list of schools as communist recruitments targets. Others are University of the Philippines -Visayas, West Visayas State University, Aklan State University (ASU), all in Iloilo, and Filamer Christian University (FCU) and Capiz State University (CAPSU) in Capiz province.

RTF-ELCAC had the dialogues with ASU on January 28 and FCU on February 4.

National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) 6 director Anna Liza Umpar, who is also the chair of the RTF-ELCAC Situational Awareness and Knowledge Management (SAKMA) in the region said the dialogues were good opportunities for them to clarify things that needed to be sorted out on the recruitment of CPP-NPA-NDF among students.

She said that the most important thing that came out from the engagements in ASU and FCU was that it became the start of partnership with the RTF-ELCAC.

The meeting in CPU was highlighted by a briefing on CTG activities and recruitment and sharing of two former communist members particularly on the issue of recruitment.

Robles said they are very happy with the meeting but expressed regrets that this took place before the pronouncement of the Task Force on the participation of some people claiming that they are from a specific university.

He hoped that meetings such as these will continue in order to have a good communication between the Task Force and the universities “so that we could figure out a better way to resolve problems that we are facing today.”

Umpar was joined by 301st Infantry Brigade Commander BGeneral Marion Sison, Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, DILG 6 Monitoring and Evaluation Division Chief Maricel Bechayda, and a representative from Police Regional Office 6 and Philippine Information Agency 6 during the meeting. (laf/PIA6-Iloilo)

https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1066183