The Youths As Pawns

Source: Captured enemy-documents

In August 7, 2019, news reports coming from the Senate sent shockwaves to the nation. Emotional mothers spoke of how Leftist groups recruited their daughters, who eventually ran away from home to work for the organizations full time.

One mother, Relissa Lucena, recounted how her then 16-year old daughter was recruited by Anakbayan, a militant youth organization of the CPP-NPA-NDF. Lucena said her daughter stopped attending senior high school at the Far Eastern University to focus on the organization. Despite her many warnings, her daughter remained active. In one instance, she left home for three days. The worried Lucena, a founding member of Hands Off Our Children (HOOC) group that advocates for preventing recruitment of youth and students to the CPP-NPA- NDF and to its front organizations, reported it to the police. When her daughter came back and realized what her mother had done, she tagged her mother as an “enemy” (Ager, 2019). 

“She said I was an enemy. She said I should think that I no longer have a child. I kneeled in front of my child. I begged her to stay and for us to fix the situation,” Lucena said on national television.

Despite her constant begging, her daughter left.

“She left a letter. In it, she said I was a bad parent. That letter crushed my heart to the point that I almost committed suicide,” Lucena said.

A week later, two of the missing students went public on social media and decried their parents’ allegations. They said they ran away from their homes because of family issues not because they were forcibly recruited (Madarang, 2019). Of course, they spoke under the banner of the militant groups they now represent, the same militant groups that refused to let another “missing” child go (Tuquero, 2019).

The news seemed shocking to some, but for Victor it was quite reminiscent of his own recruitment and his recruitment of other youth. Victor’s memories came rushing back. 

--THE WARS WITHIN (2020)

Awakening

Source: Captured enemy-documents

Victor, having realized a lot of contradictions in CPP’s doctrine and practices, started contemplating on many things – mostly of existential consequences. He was torn emotionally, as
well as intellectually.

Imagine being a father of growing family and being supposedly the breadwinner of your immediate and extended family. Imagine having to live on less than PHP 10,000 a month and then having to deal with the hospitalization of your children. Where will you get the money? What are you willing to do to get what your family needs?

These questions regularly haunted Victor in the latter half of his involvement with the CPP-NPA-NDF. His patience, perseverance, and capacity to endure sacrifices were all tested. His greatest challenge – as ironic to the ideals of the revolution as it sounds – was money: providing sustenance for his family.

“We didn’t have any other sources of income aside from the support provided by the Party. It’s not enough whenever you face a crisis, and it definitely affected my work,” Victor said. 

--THE WARS WITHIN (2020 / Copy&Share) 

People's Right to be Informed

Slide presentation recovered from a top ranking CPP-NPA-NDF. 

It discussed the role of the CPP-NPA-NDF’s revolutionary 
urban-based mass movement.

“What can the public contribute to help ease the communist insurgency and end the CPP-NPA’s reign of terror in communities they hold sway?” Victor asked. “Share our stories, expose the real nature of the CPP-NPA-NDF. Don’t be scared of being accused of ‘Red tagging’. For me, ‘Red tagging’ is just a fictional term of the CPP-NPA-NDF so that the government will be weakened and limited in its basic mandate to duly inform the people. It is within the right of the government to inform and educate the people on the nature of groups and individuals that threaten national security. Hence, the term ‘Red tagging’ is only in the mind of those who want to subvert the authority of the government. It is basically a scare tactic of the enemy of the state against the government and those who wanted to expose the former.”

According to Victor, “For one, the public must be aware of the propaganda being spun by the CPP’s networks. There must be greater awareness on the CPP’s movements – and the government, civil society, and the private sector have a lot to contribute on this matter...” 

“The CPP is filled with master infiltrators and propagandists. Their efforts are made stronger through well-thought communication strategies, supported by their allies in the media. Government security forces must also take on the communication and information battlefield, particularly the Internet, if they are to win the hearts and minds of Filipinos,” Victor said. 

--THE WARS WITHIN (2020 / Copy&Share)

Children as Armed CPP-NPA-NDF Fighters

Source: Captured enemy-documents

Another sector that the CPP considers important is the youth sector. Victor has previously mentioned the importance of this sector as a source of bright young minds that would later serve as a source of cadres for the CPP. The communist party also considers the youth as a vulnerable sector in society and “easy prey to infiltration and agitation” (Liwanag et al., 2009). They deceive the youth into thinking that the only viable way to serve the country is through armed struggle. 

The CPP-NPA-NDF has continued this deplorable practice even in recent times. In December 2019, a 16-year-old boy – a Grade 6 student of Sitio Sioan Elementary School in Barangay Malinao, Gingoog City – was killed in an encounter between the military and the NPA. The boy was later identified as the slain insurgent.

Other child insurgents were luckier, as they realized the deceptions they had fallen into and they were able to break free and turn their back on their old ways. A 19-year old NPA fighter said he was recruited when he was 17; he was subsequently rescued by 29th Infantry Battalion troopers after he was wounded in an encounter in Agusan del Norte. Another former insurgent, a 23-year old, said he was recruited when he was only 12 years old, becoming a full-time combatant at the age of 16. A 17-year-old squad medic who surrendered also told the same story, sharing that she was forced to join the NPA at age 14 – forcing her to live through three miserable years of her life.

The use of child fighters has been soundly criticized by the government and the Commission on Human Rights, which pointed out that under the International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, even non-state armed groups must not recruit and use children in armed conflict and hostilities.

As also explained by Victor’s work, the CPP’s strategy for organizing the youth and student sector follows this cycle of arousing the youth, organizing them, and mobilizing them.

The steps involved in this process are as follow:

1. Recruitment: Prospective recruits are invited to discussions that focus on important campus issues. The topics then shift towards political, economic and social issues in the country. This is intended to agitate them and spur them into action, such as by holding rallies.

2. Indoctrination: Those who have proven themselves to be receptive to communist ideology are indoctrinated by being exposed to meetings with people from other CPP-linked groups. When the student becomes a “hardcore” member, the recruit will undertake revolutionary courses and further mobilize during mass actions.

3. Field work: Recruits will be asked to participate in NPA operations, such as planning guerrilla actions and being involved in actual armed operations. After about 60 to 90 days, they will be asked whether they will go back to school or remain in the countryside. Those who choose the former will be tasked to become the cadre- in-charge in the student/youth organizations.

4. Full-time duty cadre: Recruits who remain in the countryside will seek the endorsement of the Party unit in his locality. After a year of being exposed to the countryside operations, they will become a prospective candidate. After two to three years of good performance, and depending on his ideological, political, and organizational work, the recruit becomes a full-fledged party member.

--THE WARS WITHIN (2020/Copy&Share)

Does Killing Fellow Filipinos Make Sense?

Source: Captured enemy-documents

For Victor, the firefights he had been part of were moments of awakening. As he encountered more near death experiences, and as he lost more comrades in battle, he began to profoundly question what they were truly fighting for. The spill of blood and the reality of death is a constant weight bearing down on his conscience, and to every CPP-NPA-NDF cadre.

“You don’t just lose lives from your team, but your enemy loses also their own members with families to feed, leaving behind grief-stricken spouses, children, and parents who need to live on and survive. It bears on your conscience even though you see yourself as a revolutionary or a hardcore communist cadre with strong ideological beliefs and foundation. You see, it really doesn’t make sense especially that we are fighting – and tragically killing – fellow Filipinos too,” Victor shared.

It’s a constant challenge to true revolutionary leaders to maintain the emotional strength, confidence, fighting will, and war footing of their troops and comrades. Victor had been a leader and the task to keep up morale bore heavily on him, and the questions and doubts kept tugging on him. However, the dubious actions of his superiors in the CPP-NPA-NDF were starting to bother him. On top of these, his own family needs were also jostling for attention. “What place do they really occupy in my heart, alongside my commitment to the revolutionary cause?” Victor mused. 

--THE WARS WITHIN (2020/Copy&Share)

Run and Live

Source: Captured enemy-documents

The staccato of gunshots grew sharper as Victor frantically scoured for a good hiding spot. The night was pitch black, and they could hardly see anything inside the house.

It was a dawn raid, and from the sound of gunfire from the attacking government forces, he knew the enemy was steadily advancing with deadly precision. The selective fires coming from the enemy made Victor more fearful. Gauging how disciplined the attackers were in their gunshots and precise in their maneuvers, Victor knew the enemy were not regular infantry troops - they were specialized troops who were experts in warfighting. 

Victor, though not having experienced any gunfight before that night, had the good gut feel that it would be the end of them if they failed to defend their position, or quickly escape towards the jungle. For Victor, the latter was the better option under the circumstance.

There was no point in trading gunshots with the enemy. It would be futile and to their detriment. If they did, they would have just practically informed –courtesy of the flashes from the muzzles of their rifles– the enemy of their exact location. Hands down, they had to run for their lives.

Seeing a slim opportunity to put up a good fight, Victor and companions made the dash of their lives towards the forested portion of the village. They ran as fast as they could, with utter disregard of the uneven terrain and what could hit them along the way. It was a run for life.

“Hindi ko talaga alam kung ano gagawin ko. Pinaghalong gulat, takot, at sobrang pagod ang nangingibabaw noon sa akin pagkatapos ng buong araw na gawaing-masa. Yun ang pinakauna ko makaranas ng barilan [I really don’t what know what to do. What I felt that time was a mixture of shock, fear, and physical exhaustion after a rough day of mass work. It was my first time to experience a gunfight],” Victor revealed. 

--THE WARS WITHIN (2020/Copy&Share)