AFP’s ‘red-tagging’ of Metro Manila schools ‘endangers’ students — CHR

FILE: Students joining a rally. (Photo by Ginno Alcantara/Philippine Canadian Inquirer)

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) slammed the military after it bared a list of schools where the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is allegedly recruiting for the supposed “Red October” plot against President Rodrigo Duterte.

“This blanket act of red-tagging endangers students and the youth and it may give the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) a license to arbitrarily infringe the freedom of expression, the right to petition government, as well as to assembly,” Lawyer Jacqueline de Guia, CHR spokesperson, said on Thursday, October 4.

De Guia said this remark following Brigadier General Antonio Parlade, Jr.’s, Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for operations, disclosure of schools in which they claimed students were recruited by the communist rebels for the alleged plot to oust Duterte.

These schools, according to Parlade, are the following: University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman and Manila, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), University of Santo Tomas (UST), De La Salle University (DLSU), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), Adamson University (AdU), Far Eastern University (FEU), University of the East (UE) in Recto and Caloocan, Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC), Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (EARIST), San Beda University, Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU), University of Makati (UMak),  University of Caloocan, University of Manila, and Philippine Normal University (PNU).

In her statement, de Guia stressed that this list “has not been thoroughly validated.

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However, the AFP maintained their position that “some of the schools in that list have been, and widely known to have been used, as fora for communist recruitment.”

“The students are agitated initially towards activism; mobilize them as militants, and finally recruit them as regular NPA (New People’s Army) cadres and leaders to fill up the dwindling number of political cadres,” AFP spokesman Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo said also on Thursday.

Despite this, Arevalo admitted that several schools in the list are still subject of continuing validation.

In identifying the schools, the military official said it was not meant to brand those academic institutions as communist, but the AFP just wants to “create awareness among our people especially parents who were complaining and asking for our help.”

During a budget hearing at the Senate last Tuesday, AFP Chief of Staff General Carlito Galvez, Jr. said the CPP ‘organized’ students from 10 universities in Manila as part of the supposed “Red October” plot.

While he did not disclose yet the universities, Galvez noted that CPP founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison has already “conducted a lot of conferences” in UP.

[READ: Galvez: CPP ‘organizes’ students in 10 Manila universities for ‘Red October’ plot]