The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is looking to intensify the government’s information awareness campaign against various recruitment techniques by insurgency groups, particularly the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and its front organizations, in learning institutions.
NTF-ELCAC Executive Director, Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. said this was discussed during the 6th NTF-ELCAC Executive Committee (EXECOM) Meeting presided by NTF-ELCAC Chairman and President Marcos Jr. in Malacanang on Friday, Nov. 8.
During the meeting, Marcos approved the inclusion of the Coordinating Council for Private Education Association (COCOPEA) – an umbrella organization of around 1,500 private schools across the country – as an official member of the executive committee of the NTF-ELCAC.
Torres said that this would broaden the base of the NTF-ELCAC’s information awareness campaign pertaining to matters related to the “terror grooming” schemes of the CPP-NPA-NDF and other insurgent or terrorist groups in the country.
“With the COCOPEA’s inclusion as part of the EXECOM of NTF-ELCAC, there will be a broader base for the information awareness campaign of the government for them [students] to know the truth about the designated groups, designated terrorist organizations, and personalities so that they will have an informed choice as to whether or not they would join certain organizations,” he said.
Torres also dismissed concerns about red-tagging with this plan of the NTF-ELCAC as the strategy that they will create will be “rules-based and human rights-based”.
According to the retired military general, two of the 12 clusters of the NTF-ELCAC will be tasked to create a strategy on how students in private schools will be taught how to avoid such grooming schemes by the CPP-NPA-NDF. One cluster is headed by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) while the other is co-headed by the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) and the National Security Council (NSC).
“COCOPEA will be one of the members in these clusters. The cluster will craft [strategies] on how to effectively launch our rules-based, human rights-based approach in really unmasking the truth about the CPP-NPA-NDF,” Torres said.
During the meeting, Marcos was also presented with the final draft of the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP UPD) which aims to elevate the current anti-insurgency campaign by focusing on the implementation of socio-economic development programs to address the root causes of insurgency rather than on security operations.
“Lasting peace is the price of eternal vigilance. We have to continue working together, to be more vigilant even if we have already severely degraded their capability to conduct violent actions or terrorism. We have to be continuously vigilant and supportive of the different socio-economic development programs of the govt. That is practically what the NAP UPD is geared towards,” Torres said.
At present, there remains 1,111 NPA fighters in the country which is a significant reduction from 2,200 last year, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Torres said only four “weakened” remaining guerilla fronts also remain: the weakened guerilla front North Abra and weakened guerilla front Baggas both in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); the Komiteng Larangan Gerilya (KLG) 1 in the Bicol Region (Region 5); and weakened guerilla Central front in Negros Occidental.
“But as the AFP have submitted to us, three of those are already for validation to be dismantled. So, we are very optimistic that upon official validation we would only be confronting one weakened guerilla front,” he said, expressing optimism that all the guerilla fronts will be “finished” and reduced to zero by the end of this year.