Groups bat for minors’ protection from CPP-NPA recruitment

‘STOP YOUTH RECRUITMENT’. Anti-communist groups stage a protest rally in UP Diliman on Thursday to denounce the violence and abuses committed by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF). The groups also appealed for increased protection of children against illegal recruitment activities. (Contributed photo via PNA)

MANILA – Anti-communist groups on Thursday called for increased protection of minors from the recruitment schemes of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and its allied organizations.

League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP), Liga Independencia Pilipinas (LIPI) and other civil society organizations alongside mothers of students who were reportedly recruited by various militant groups, made this call in a protest at the University of the Philippines Diliman, as they denounced the atrocities and abuses committed by the rebel group.

They railed against the “continuous indoctrination of wrong ideologies” to minors during their rally.

LPP chair Remy Rosadio said the initiatives to oust President Rodrigo Duterte could be part of the CPP-NPA’s deceitful political tactics and recruit more people into the rebel group.

Rosadio said CPP-NPA-linked organizations are relentlessly maneuvering fraudulent tactics to recruit more youth and exploit minors to join the communist armed movement.

“Why do they claim themselves to be pro-marginalized and pro-people when all they do is to mislead our youth towards communist terrorism?,” Rosadio said.

These are part of the CPP-NPA revolutionary schemes, she said, which include motivating the youth to become critical against the government and eventually join the communist armed movement.

“Instead of uniting the Filipino people, they are moving towards destroying the future of our youths.

This must be stopped now,” Rosadio said.

The anti-communist groups appealed to students not to destroy their future by engaging with “illogical beliefs, senseless insurgency, and irrational armed movement.

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Relentless to their call to end communist terrorism, the groups said they will not stop rallying until the CPP-NPA is held liable to their atrocities given the “tons of evidence” pointing to their “cruelty and barbaric actions.”

“We will never stop speaking up until the exploitation of children and killings of the innocent will end,” they said.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.