From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 2, 2021): NICA-12 moves to counter NPA recruitment in schools (By Richelyn Gubalani)
Eduardo Marquez, director of the Intelligence Coordinating Agency-Region 12 (PNA GenSan file photo)
The National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) has stepped up efforts to counter the recruitment activities of communist terrorist groups led by the New People’s Army (NPA) in various colleges and universities in Region 12 (Soccsksargen).
This, as the agency confirmed that it has validated recruitment activities by the NPA and its allied organizations targeting college or university students, including those coming from the Mindanao State University (MSU) campus here.
The university was earlier included in the list of colleges and universities in the country where the NPA’s recruitment activities have reportedly persisted.
Eduardo Marquez, NICA-Region 12 director, said Tuesday these activities were confirmed by former NPA rebels who were captured or have surrendered in the region these past years.
He said among the top recruits from the university was Noel Legaspi alias “Ka Efren,” who rose to become the spokesperson and deputy secretary of the NPA-Far South Mindanao Revolutionary Committee.
Legaspi, who surrendered to authorities along with his wife in January 2018, was already in his senior year as a Political Science student when he decided to join the NPA, he said.
“There was another recruit (from the same university) who later became a professor,” Marquez said in a radio interview.
But the official clarified that it does not mean that MSU or any other college or university in the region have become hotbeds or breeding grounds of the NPA.
He said the recruitment activities were clearly not sanctioned or consented to by the university and any of its officials and personnel.
The NPA and its allied groups took advantage of the situation in the campuses and specifically targeted to recruit the students, he said.
Marquez, who chairs the security awareness and knowledge management cluster of the Soccsksargen Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, said they are giving this information to make the people aware of such scenarios.
NICA-12 and other members of the task force have expanded their awareness campaigns in the region in the last two years to counter the NPA’s recruitment activities among the youth and students, he said.
He added that they will expand this year their information and education campaigns against these activities as well as continue organizing the youths and students in local communities to become peace advocates.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1129372
This, as the agency confirmed that it has validated recruitment activities by the NPA and its allied organizations targeting college or university students, including those coming from the Mindanao State University (MSU) campus here.
The university was earlier included in the list of colleges and universities in the country where the NPA’s recruitment activities have reportedly persisted.
Eduardo Marquez, NICA-Region 12 director, said Tuesday these activities were confirmed by former NPA rebels who were captured or have surrendered in the region these past years.
He said among the top recruits from the university was Noel Legaspi alias “Ka Efren,” who rose to become the spokesperson and deputy secretary of the NPA-Far South Mindanao Revolutionary Committee.
Legaspi, who surrendered to authorities along with his wife in January 2018, was already in his senior year as a Political Science student when he decided to join the NPA, he said.
“There was another recruit (from the same university) who later became a professor,” Marquez said in a radio interview.
But the official clarified that it does not mean that MSU or any other college or university in the region have become hotbeds or breeding grounds of the NPA.
He said the recruitment activities were clearly not sanctioned or consented to by the university and any of its officials and personnel.
The NPA and its allied groups took advantage of the situation in the campuses and specifically targeted to recruit the students, he said.
Marquez, who chairs the security awareness and knowledge management cluster of the Soccsksargen Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, said they are giving this information to make the people aware of such scenarios.
NICA-12 and other members of the task force have expanded their awareness campaigns in the region in the last two years to counter the NPA’s recruitment activities among the youth and students, he said.
He added that they will expand this year their information and education campaigns against these activities as well as continue organizing the youths and students in local communities to become peace advocates.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1129372
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