• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Philippine Army has challenged militant organizations to explain the alleged involvement of some of their members in armed encounters against government troops in Negros Island.
In a statement, Army spokesperson Col. Louie Dema-ala criticized groups such as Kabataan Party-list and Anakbayan, accusing them of allegedly radicalizing young individuals and linking them to the armed struggle of the New People’s Army.
The statement follows two armed clashes in Toboso and Cauayan, Negros Occidental, which claimed the lives of 24 individuals from the rebel side, including student activists and alumnus of government schools, who are associated with militant groups linked by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front.
Dema-ala said the incidents allegedly reflect what it described as a “terror-grooming scheme” that recruits young people into armed conflict instead of allowing them to pursue peaceful and productive lives.
Among the five suspected rebels killed in the recent Cauayan encounter was Vince Francis Dingding, who was reportedly associated with Kabataan Party-list’s Cebu chapter. He was reported by the Apolinario Gatmaitan Command in Negros as the secretary of the South West Front- Komiteng Rehiyonal Negros.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) also raised concern over the presence of alleged child combatants, saying three minors were among those recovered from the clash site in Toboso, Negros Occidental.
The incidents, according to NTF-ELCAC, collectively raise serious concerns over what it describes as a continuing pattern of ideological grooming in which youthful idealism, social causes, and advocacy spaces are gradually transformed into entry points toward clandestine structures and eventually armed struggle.
In another statement, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Visayas Command (VISCOM) said the case of Dingding is a clear manifestation of how the CPP-NPA systematically preys upon, corrupts, and exploits the youth for its violent ideological agenda.
Young individuals are deceived and radicalized, turning them into instruments of conflict while drawing them away from their families in pursuit of armed struggle, the VISCOM statement said.*
