Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel (PPAB)

Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel called out the alleged disinformation in an exchange between National Youth Commission (NYC) Chairman Ronald Cardema and Duterte Youth Party-list Rep. Drixie Mae Cardema about the alleged recruitment of the National People’s Army (NPA) among young Filipinos.

“Nag-spread po ng disinformation ang NYC chair through its responses sa isa nating colleague, na tinanggap naman po ‘yung responses although hindi pa gano’n ka-knowledgeable sa mga topics na nabanggit,” said Manuel during the budget deliberations on Thursday, Aug. 15.

(The NYC chair spread disinformation through his responses to one of our colleagues, who accepted the responses although she was not that knowledgeable on the topics mentioned.)

“And to address the elephant in the room, may malinaw na may conflict of interest dahil magkamag-anak sila (there is clearly a conflict of interest because they are related),” he added.

For about 10 minutes of her interpellation in the budget hearing of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Rep. Cardema evaluated NYC’s role in combating the supposed proliferation of recruitment from communist rebels.

“Paki-explain kung bakit pati kayo kasama dito sa NPA recruitment? (Please explain why you are also included in the NPA recruitment?)” she asked, referring to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

In response, NYC’s Cardema noted that his agency is part of the NTF-ELCAC given that the NPA’s “main target” is the Filipino youth.

“Sa aming pananaw, ang ginagawa ng NPA ngayon, tinututukan ang recruitment ng kabataan sa mga paaralan at komunidad to replenish their ranks. Kaya mandato rin po namin na tutukan ito,” he added.

(In our view, what the NPA is doing now is focusing on the recruitment of youth in schools and communities to replenish their ranks. So we are also mandated to focus on this.)

The two got so comfortable talking to each other, that the presiding officer even reminded them to address the panel chair during the interpellation.

“I would just like to request our colleagues here that if you have some questions, and also to our resource speakers, all should be addressed to the chairman,” said Nueva Vizcaya lone district Rep. Luisa Lloren Cuaresma.

Meanwhile, Manuel also questioned why NYC’s Cardema believed that the practice of red-tagging was “vague”.

“Kaya naging vague ‘yan kasi hindi natin kinukondena ‘yung mismong mga recruiter, mga grupo na napapatayan ng NPA,” NYC’s Cardema noted.

(That became vague because the recruiters are not condemned, alongside groups that have NPA members killed in action).

In his response, Manuel pointed out that the Supreme Court (SC) earlier defined this practice and labeled such acts as a violation of human rights.

“It shows na incompetent hanggang ngayon ‘yung ating NYC chair (It shows that our NYC chair is still incompetent),” the Kabataan solon stressed.