(Eagle News) — It’s a “blatant lie.”
This was how Interior Secretary Eduardo Año described on Tuesday, Dec. 4, former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo’s claim that Communist rebels were not recruiting minors as fighters.
According to Año, such a practice “has been going on for decades.”
He noted the police, for instance, has filed five cases against Communist rebels for doing the same this year; in 2017, five cases were filed; and in 2016, three cases were filed.
He said even the media has reported the existence of Communist fighters who are minors.
In April this year, for instance, he said a 15-year-old NPA fighter was killed in an encounter between government troops and Communist rebels in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur; in July 2017, two boys and a girl were killed in Compostella Valley; and in 2015, an 11-year-old surrendered to the military in Asuncion, Davao del Norte.
Año also backed the arrest of Ocampo and members of his group and the filing of charges against them.
The Interior secretary noted that children were being held at the Salugpungan Learning Center without the consent of the parents, noting also that affidavits from witnesses showed the children were being trained in the center to hold firearms at an early age.
He said based on the affidavits, the children were also later taken to NPA camps.
Philippine National Police Chief Oscar Albayalde had said lumad schoolchildren in general were being taught a different version of the national anthem in those centers.
Earlier, Ocampo’s group said they were merely rescuing the children who had been affected by the shutdown of the center by a paramilitary group.
