The heat of the tense speakership squabble has barely subsided but a new feud is brewing in the House of Representatives, this time, involving representatives of youth partylist organizations.
Kabataan party-list Rep. Sarah Elago and newly-inducted Duterte Youth Rep. Ducielle Marie Cardema are set to square off after Cardema filed House Resolution 1293 as her very first legislative proposal.
HR 1293 proposes a congressional inquiry into the youth recruitment of the New People’s Army, allegedly being conducted by front organizations and campus youth groups.
Kabataan partylist is a youth group that was organized by student leaders.
"This comes as no surprise,” Elago said in a statement.
She chided Cardema for initiating the probe amid the problems faced by the country’s youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Elago said that instead of pursuing measures that would guarantee funding for the more urgent needs of young Filipinos to fight off the adverse effects of the pandemic, Cardema launched her congressional term with a “witch hunt” against the youth.
“Duterte Youth further reveals itself as a mere mouthpiece parroting the Duterte regime's attacks against dissent and the exercise of the rights of youth in the fight against abuse, corruption and tyranny,” declared Elago.
“Ilang beses nang ginamit ang ganitong usapin para patahimikin, gipitin ang mga organisasyon ng mga kabataan at atakihin ang academic freedom (They have used this tact many times to silence and pressure youth organization and assail academic freedom),” noted Elago.
“Halatang wala itong alam at pakialam sa kalagayan ng mga kabataan. (Its obvious she is ignorant and does not care about the condition of the youth),” the Kabataan solon added.
Cardema was formally accepted as a new member of the House Tuesday. She replaced husband, former National Youth Council chairman Ronald Cardema, as the Duterte Youth representative following his disqualification as nominee for being “overaged.”
In filing HR 1299, Cardema pointed out that it is not her intention to investigate “organizations that are simply opposing or criticizing the government.”
“The patriotic intention of this investigation is for the Philippine Congress and the Filipino people to finally find out which front organizations are recruiting for the New People’s Army, for clearly the NPA has no visible recruitment centers in cities and schools and are just using non-NPA named front organizations to recruit for them,” she said.
According to Cardema, the NPA has been pushing for youth recruitment in cities and school campuses “to replenish their ranks” that are currently being depleted with the surrender to government of “old NPA fighters.”