For the Philippine National Police (PNP), no student deserves to be in harm’s way— and even lose life— over youth curiosity and idealism.

And that’s why PNP chief Gen. Jose Melencio C. Nartatez, Jr. is seeking the crafting of intervention measures with other government agencies to prevent students from being lured to shoot it out with policemen and soldiers.

“The youth is the vulnerable sector in this case. Curiosity and idealism are being exploited so it is important for parents to monitor and ensure proper guidance while we in the PNP also help through awareness campaigns and other information drive-related interventions,” said Nartatez.

He issued the statement after the death of a UP Diliman student who was among those who died after the clashes between soldiers and communist rebels in Taboso, Negros Occidental.

Even before the case of Alyssa Alano, a number of students were either captured or killed in clashes with government forces.

Nartatez said part of the measures is the conduct of monitoring and analysis on the possible changes and innovation in the recruitment process of communist rebels in colleges and universities.

“Recruitment is becoming more subtle, and it includes community immersion and cause-oriented messaging,” said Nartatez, noting that these approaches make detection more difficult at the early stages.

To counter these tactics, he ordered the immediate deployment of community-focused police visibility in Negros and nearby high-risk provinces.

He said the PNP is also planning to launch an aggressive information campaign across schools and barangays to expose the specific recruitment tactics used on social media to prevent further radicalization in coordination with concerned government agencies.

The Commission on Human Rights is now conducting an independent investigation into all the circumstances that led to the incident and the PNP sees the result of the probe as an opportunity for analysis.