From the Visayan Daily Star (Jul 14, 2022): Army: NPA recruitment led to wasted life (BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN)
Nikka Ledesma dela Cruz* 3ID photo
A good daughter and a brilliant student.
This was how the parents of Nikka Ledesma Dela Cruz, one of the four New People’s Army rebels who died in an encounter with Army soldiers and policemen on July 6, in Brgy. Santol, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental, according to Capt. Kim Apitong, Public Affairs Office chief of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division.
According to her mother, who is a doctor, Apitong said Nikka, a Communication graduate of the University of San Jose Recoletos in Cebu, wanted to be a journalist. But during her college days, she was already participating in protest rallies, staged by urban poor group Kadamay, Gabriela Women’s Group and other left leaning organizations in Carbon, Cebu City, which led to her being recruited by Anakbayan youth group, upon seeing her potential as an effective “cadre.”
After graduating from college, Nikka worked briefly worked with a television network in Cebu, where she focused on Kadamay’s anti-government protests, which further agitated her to hate the government, Apitong further claimed.
He accused militant groups of facilitating her entry to New People’s Army in Negros Island.
Apitong claimed that Nikka joined the Central Negros (Front 2 of the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros Cebu Bohol Siquijor) on March this year.
Authorities recovered video footage of her and companions performing a cultural dance in front of NPA leaders, with a backdrop of CPP-NPA-NDF flags and firearms, that confirmed her entry to CN2 unit, he added.
Nikka and three of her comrades died on July 6, barely five months she went underground, Apitong said.
The wasted life of Nikka, other students, and youth who were brainwashed, deceived, and killed in several encounters is enough and must be stopped at once, he stressed.
Apitong also said that the recruiter and the organizations who brainwashed Nikka must take full responsibility for her death, and be punished legally under existing law, to give justice to her death.
Nikka, 26, was reported by the Philippine Army as a “cadre” of CN2 under KR NCBS.
The Army’s 3ID called on private and government educational institutions to be more vigilant in resolving the CPP-NPA-NDF recruitment activities, especially in state universities and colleges, and the strengthening of the National Task Force Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC), to continue exposing the lies and deception of the CPP NPA sectoral front organizations in recruiting innocent students to become NPA members.
https://visayandailystar.com/army-npa-recruitment-led-to-wasted-life/
A good daughter and a brilliant student.
This was how the parents of Nikka Ledesma Dela Cruz, one of the four New People’s Army rebels who died in an encounter with Army soldiers and policemen on July 6, in Brgy. Santol, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental, according to Capt. Kim Apitong, Public Affairs Office chief of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division.
According to her mother, who is a doctor, Apitong said Nikka, a Communication graduate of the University of San Jose Recoletos in Cebu, wanted to be a journalist. But during her college days, she was already participating in protest rallies, staged by urban poor group Kadamay, Gabriela Women’s Group and other left leaning organizations in Carbon, Cebu City, which led to her being recruited by Anakbayan youth group, upon seeing her potential as an effective “cadre.”
After graduating from college, Nikka worked briefly worked with a television network in Cebu, where she focused on Kadamay’s anti-government protests, which further agitated her to hate the government, Apitong further claimed.
He accused militant groups of facilitating her entry to New People’s Army in Negros Island.
Apitong claimed that Nikka joined the Central Negros (Front 2 of the Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros Cebu Bohol Siquijor) on March this year.
Authorities recovered video footage of her and companions performing a cultural dance in front of NPA leaders, with a backdrop of CPP-NPA-NDF flags and firearms, that confirmed her entry to CN2 unit, he added.
Nikka and three of her comrades died on July 6, barely five months she went underground, Apitong said.
The wasted life of Nikka, other students, and youth who were brainwashed, deceived, and killed in several encounters is enough and must be stopped at once, he stressed.
Apitong also said that the recruiter and the organizations who brainwashed Nikka must take full responsibility for her death, and be punished legally under existing law, to give justice to her death.
Nikka, 26, was reported by the Philippine Army as a “cadre” of CN2 under KR NCBS.
The Army’s 3ID called on private and government educational institutions to be more vigilant in resolving the CPP-NPA-NDF recruitment activities, especially in state universities and colleges, and the strengthening of the National Task Force Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC), to continue exposing the lies and deception of the CPP NPA sectoral front organizations in recruiting innocent students to become NPA members.
https://visayandailystar.com/army-npa-recruitment-led-to-wasted-life/
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