E. Visayas ELCAC sustains efforts to end NPA recruitment

From the Philippine News Agency (Jan 25, 2021): E. Visayas ELCAC sustains efforts to end NPA recruitment (By Sarwell Meniano)

STOP NPA RECRUITMENT. A local official in Leyte expresses opposition to the New People's Army (NPA) recruitment in the province in this Nov. 12, 2020 photo. The Eastern Visayas Regional Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict on Monday (Jan. 25, 2021) says it is stepping up efforts to end online and campus-based recruitment of the NPA. (Photo courtesy of Philippine Army 802nd Infantry Brigade)

TACLOBAN CITY – The Eastern Visayas Regional Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC) is stepping up efforts to end online and campus-based recruitment of the New People’s Army (NPA).

The movement restrictions prompted the NPA to resort to webinars, inviting students to participate in discussions on government flaws, said Col. Noel Vestuir, deputy commander of the Philippine Army’s 802nd Infantry Brigade based in Leyte, on Monday.

"The NPA has been taking advantage of poverty by agitating and mobilizing students to fight the government. It starts with student activism," Vestuir told reporters in a press briefing here.

National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) regional director Eustacio Bacabac said current talks on the termination of the Department of National Defense-University of the Philippines (DND-UP) accord has strengthened the regional task force resolve to stop the NPA's recruitment drive.

The government terminated the agreement in a bid to end the NPA’s deceptive recruitment in schools, taking advantage of academic freedom.

The NICA official confirmed that there have been efforts by NPA to recruit students of the UP Visayas Tacloban College and the University of Eastern Philippines in Catarman, Northern Samar.

“Some NPA leaders and organizers captured in military operations are former students of these two schools. We have to step up our campaign to make our students and their parents aware of the NPA’s real intention,” Bacabac said.

Insurgency will be completely eradicated if the communist terrorist group will not be able to recruit new members, according to regional task force members.

NICA believes that insurgents resorted to other tactics as the health crisis hindered their regular recruitment efforts, organizing and mobilizing activities, as well as raising funds for logistics.

Among the left-leaning groups active in social media recruitment are the League of Filipino Students and Kabataan Partylist, according to Bacabac.

“They are taking advantage of the unfavorable economic condition to fan discontent against the government and to entice recruits to join their ranks,” he added.

The NICA official has asked task force members and journalists to help the government counter these strategies by spreading the truth using social media accounts.

Established in 1971 to 1973, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-NPA’s Eastern Visayas Regional Party Community has collapsed from 1993 to 2014 due to the massive drive of the government to eliminate insurgents.

The collapse prompted rebels to recruit new members starting in 2015, Bacabac said in his presentation during the press briefing.

As of mid-2020, the NPA in Eastern Visayas has 384 fighters with 363 firearms, influencing 162 villages, a small fraction of the 4,390 villages in the region’s six provinces.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1128419