THE National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) are intensifying their operations under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) amid the persisting recruitment of youth by the communist terrorist group CPP-NPA-NDF.
Thousands of individuals have been victims of intimidation, theft, and killings by CPP-NPA-NDF, which they have been doing for over fifty years.
Until now, they continue to sow chaos and violence in various parts of the Philippines
Deputy Director General for Special Concerns Abelardo Villacorta of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency or NICA said the threat from this terrorist group in the country, particularly their recruitment of youth, persists.
Their primary targets are students.
“And they are pitiful, their dreams, their ambitions are shattered because they are being deceived to join the movement and become members of the NPA. They are pitiful, even their parents,” according to Abelardo Villacorta, Deputy Dir. Gen. for Special Concerns, NICA.
Villacorta identified the College Editors Guild as “very much involved” in recruitment activities in universities.
Also included is the League of Filipino Students (LFS) responsible for recruiting students in colleges and universities.
“And those skilled in oration, skilled in writing, journalism, these are the ones they recruit because of the propaganda activities of the CPP-NPA. They are the ones who speak during rallies, protests on the streets. They are good at that. They are the recruits of the CPP-NPA through the League of Filipino Students,” Villacorta added.
Once persuaded by these groups, the recruits undergo seminars and training, until they become underground members of the Kabataang Makabayan.
Villacorta said, this is the underground organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines and will be the way for them to join the New People’s Army (NPA).
“But remember, they are under the umbrella of the National Democratic Front, which includes everything— LFS, Gabriela, KMU, everything, that we see at rallies,” Villacorta said.
In relation to this, Villacorta said that the NICA’s operations are active, especially under the NTF-ELCAC.
Among the twelve clusters under the NTF-ELCAC, NICA leads a cluster called Situational Awareness and Knowledge Management.
This is an information campaign not only for the government but also for the private sector and all community members, with the aim to convey the true situation regarding the lies and deceptions of the communist terrorist groups.
Aside from this, many parents are also supporting NICA, including the “Yakap ng Magulang” (Parents’ Embrace), a group that actively helps the agency.
NICA also supports its legal cluster by sharing information with investigators.
Because of this, many cases have been filed through the NTF-ELCAC and the Department of Justice.
“There are so many pending investigations right now. And this is also the reason why some of the members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the NPA, are being designated as a terrorist group or terrorist individual because of the data, because of the information that we have at hand,” he stated.
Despite this, Villacorta explained why these groups remain very active and are still freely able to recruit students for the CPP-NPA-NDF.
“The issue here is, the Republic Act 1700 (Anti-Subversion Law was scrapped, so they became more legal, that provision that joining such organizations used to be illegal, so now they are free and their recruitment continues,” he stressed.
