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)