Progressive youth groups Anakbayan Metro Manila and Kabataan Partylist Metro Manila slammed the Philippine National Police (PNP) over red-baiting and vilification of youth groups and other partylists in a local forum in Pamantasang Lungsod ng Marikina on Thursday, February 21.
The forum, organized by the Marikina CPS-SCADU, aimed to raise awareness on the ‘anti-terrorism’ campaign launched by the current administration. Among those who attended were students taking up degrees in criminology, hotel and restaurant management and education.
In an interview, one student who attended the forum shared her reaction regarding the event.
“Sa loob ng halos isang oras na pagsasalita ni PNP PO1 Joel L. Lapuz ay puro panghihikayat sa mga estudyante na huwag sumali sa mga progresibong grupo dahil ito ay makakasama lamang sa kanila. Paulit-ulit niya ring binabanggit ang masamang dulot ng pagrarally sa mga estudyante at hindi dapat kami lumalaban sa gobyerno dahil ito raw ang nagpapaaral sa amin. Sa kabuuan, pinipigilan nito ang estudyanteng gaya ko na maging kritikal sa ating gobyerno at maging sa iba pang aspeto na apektado ang mga mag-aaral at ang aming pamilya.”
[“The almost one hour of PNP PO1 Joel L. Lapuz’s talk was only full of persuading the students to not join progressive groups because he said that it will now be beneficial for us. He repeatedly mentioned the grave consequences of students joining protests and that we should not fight the government because it provides us the means to study. All in all, they are only trying to stop us from becoming critical of our government and even in other aspects where our fellow students and families are affected.”]
The student further manifested that Marikina Police PO1 Lapuz introduced himself as a former youth activist. He also named several progressive youth organizations such as Anakbayan and League of Filipino Students as recruiters of NPA and warned that their organization of street protests as part of their ‘communist-terrorist activities’.
Lapuz also warned the students against voting for progressive partylists such as Kabataan, Bayan Muna Party-list, ACT Teachers and other partylists of the Makabayan Bloc, citing that these groups serve as sources of funding of the CPP-NPA.
Students speak out
The forum drew mixed responses from the student body, with one student inquiring why the police are discouraging students to protest when this is a constitutionally-guaranteed right.
One student reacted by saying that protests have contributed significantly to attaining socio-economic reforms like the Free Tuition Policy, and that it is not the government who is funding state scholars’ tuition but the people’s taxes.
One student said in the forum that it is incorrect and harmful to link Kabataan Partylist with terrorist activities.
Another student challenged the veracity of Lapuz’ statement that activists are members of the NPA and are recruiting students to the armed group.
The Marikina Philippine National Police (PNP) is said to make rounds in various Marikina schools with discussions focusing on ‘anti-terrorism’, with the forum at the Marikina Polytechnic College (MPC) held on February 20.
Tagged groups condemn PNP forum
In an online statement, progressive youth group Anakbayan Metro Manila denounced the recent allegations thrown by the PNP.
“The red-tagging and malicious accusations against youth organizations and progressive partylists show the desperate efforts of the US-Duterte regime to silence the growing dissent of the students and the people. The government spreads fake news and engages in terror tagging, while at the same time they fail to provide concrete solutions to land reform, contractualization, low wages, and price hikes of basic commodities and dismal social services,” said the group.
Anakbayan Metro Manila scored the Duterte administration for intimidating the youth and the people from exercising their basic human rights.
“These measures are meant to divert people’s attention from the crisis they experience, deny the sufferings of the people from anti-poor policies in Duterte’s three years and to frighten people away from exercising their basic rights to expression, organization, assembly, dissent, and even to rebel as a last resort against tyranny and oppression,” said the group.
Meanwhile, Kabataan Partylist Metro Manila also released a statement condemning the event. The group assailed the terrorist funder tag of the PNP in the forum.
“Being the sole youth representation in Congress, Kabataan Partylist has been in the forefront of the youth legislative agenda. In the 17th Congress alone, Kabataan has proposed more than 400 bills and resolutions, including the Free Tuition Policy which Pres. Duterte signed into law in 2017. Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago and the partylist’s nominees continually face baseless accusations from paid pro-government trolls and even elements of the police and military, naming these youth leaders as NPA guerrillas,” said the group in its statement.
The group also stated that terrorist tagging does not bode well for activists alone, but also for ordinary citizens.
“Terror tagging is not an attack against activists and progressive partylists only—this is an attack against constitutionally-enshrined basic civil liberties of every Filipino citizen. If we are to be led to believe that people who have dissenting views and those who sought to organize themselves to collectively push for their rights and welfare are terrorists, then it will be easy for the government to deprive anyone of their basic human rights especially when the time comes the government agenda becomes inimical to their interests,” said the group.
Systematic, nationwide red-tagging
The progressive groups furthered that this incident is not only isolated in Metro Manila. News about the Bulacan police red-tagging students from Bulacan State University (BulSU) also made rounds in social media sites, while a ‘terrorist list’ containing names of various progressive party-lists, mass organizations, religious leaders, and even a journalist is being disseminated in Northern Mindanao.
The list included Kabataan Partylist third nominee Vennel Chenfoo.
National Youth Commission (NYC) Chair Ronald Cardema also made rounds in the news for tagging various organizations, as well as suggesting denial of scholarships for students who attend protests. The suggestion was met with criticism by the solons and even by the Palace itself. Cardema was forced to update his statement to say that only those who already joined the New People’s Army (NPA) should lose scholarships. Many netizens retorted that NPAs are no longer enrolled students.
Anakbayan Metro Manila slammed the continued harassment, citing that these state-sponsored attacks will not deter them from fighting for the rights of the people.
“We call on our fellow youth to exercise vigilance on all state-sponsored activities within our universities, such as police and military presence and resist the militarization in our schools. We have to be united in forwarding our right to education, while this regime fails to serve the students and the youth. We should expose the rotten political system that this regime continues to perpetuate. We have to strive harder to fight and ultimately end all tyrannical attacks against the youth and the people.” the group ended.
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