‘Probe NPA campus recruits’

THE Duterte Youth party- list representative has filed her first legislative measure, which is a resolution seeking to probe recruitment of the New People’s Army ( NPA) in campuses and civic organizations.

Rep. Lucille Marie Cardema took her oath as a legislator only on Tuesday, after Speaker Lord Allan Velasco was formally elected as the top House leader. She substituted the seat of her husband, National Youth Commission Commissioner Ronald Cardema, who was disqualified due to age restrictions.

In House Resolution 1293, Cardema claimed that the NPA uses “so- called civilian front organizations and campus youth organizations” in recruiting the youth “to reinforce their ranks for communist terrorist activities.”

“With the whole- of- the- nation approach now of the Philippine Government against said communist terrorist group, many old NPA fighters are surrendering by the hundreds in different parts of the country and with this, civilian front organizations of the NPA are boosting their youth recruitment in cities and school campuses to replenish their ranks,” part of the resolution read.

Cardema noted that NPA surrenderees “might have already given statements and evidence on how they were recruited to the NPA ranks,” along with the “decades of experiences and intelligence data” of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, National Security Council, and National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict.

Makabayan lawmakers opposed the measure that they said would only result in a witch hunt of youth organizations.

“After getting their spot inside the House of Representatives, Duterte Youth’s first move: Endanger the youth through a communist witch hunt,” Bayan Muna party- list Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said in a post on Twitter.

Kabataan party-list Rep. Sarah Jane Elago said she was not surprised with the move and lamented the priority of Duterte Youth, instead of pushing for the needs of the youth in health, education and livelihood in the 2021 national budget.

“Duterte Youth further reveals itself as a mere mouthpiece parroting the Duterte regime’s attacks against dissent and the exercise of the rights of youth in the fight against abuse, corruption and tyranny,” Elago added.

Kabataan has earlier tagged Duterte Youth as a “bogus party- list” with no real constituency.