Private schools’ withdrawal from NTF-ELCAC welcomed by student leaders

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The largest network of private schools COCOPEA announced its withdrawal of its membership from the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which was welcomed by student leaders who opposed the red-tagging activities of the task force.

The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations made this announcement on Monday, February 3, stating that they formally asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr last January 30 of their withdrawal from the government’s anti-insurgency task force following a consultation among its member associations and upon review of its core advocacies.

“COCOPEA’s withdrawal from the task force is of utmost significance in preserving the essentiality of academic freedom and the vital role it plays in a democratic society,” their statement said.

COCOPEA represents at least 1,500 educational institutions as an umbrella organization of several associations: the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities, the Association of Christian Schools, Colleges, and Universities, the Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges, and Universities, Unified TVET of the Philippines, and the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP).

The council said that while they are withdrawing their membership, it will still open to consultations with the task force.

Red-tagging in Davao schools

The decision is welcomed by youth leaders, who have noted how NTF-ELCAC’s activities in schools turned into red-tagging and harassment of legitimate student organizations and leaders, which has endangered lives.

Kabataan Partylist nominee Jayvie Cabajes, a former student leader of the University of the Philippines (UP) Mindanao, said: “The attacks by the NTF-ELCAC on organizations and individuals in schools is very long.  The recent one was made in a forum in Ateneo de Davao (AdDU), where they outrightly demonized organizations through red-tagging.”

The incident occurred on October 11, 2024 when in the university’s roundtable discussion on social justice. Regional NTF-ELCAC officials were invited to the forum but they brought alleged former New People’s Army rebels who red-tagged Kabataan Partylist and student activist groups as fronts of revolutionary groups.

“What was intended to be a peacebuilding-oriented discussion for students instead became a platform for silencing dissent and terror-tagging activist organizations…the event aimed to foster “comprehensive” discourse and understanding, it instead framed activism as a societal threat—stigmatizing those who challenge systemic injustice and discouraging much-needed critical dialogue,” the academic group Mindanawon Anthropological Society of the Ateneo (MASA) said in a statement after the forum.

Another incident was raised by the UP Mindanao Student Council (UPMin USC) as its former students, Choyax Cagape and Arian Jane Ramos aka Ka Marikit, made statements online and in forums, that alleged NPA recruitment activities are taking place at the university, sometimes with mentor support. They also alleged that the university serves as a favored recruitment ground for the NPA.

In March 2023, UPMin USC raised alarm of a student being “persistently harassed…and threatened to be labeled and profiled as a ‘red fighter should the student refuse to cooperate with…demands” by alleged state forces. 

Lumad students and brothers Mawing and Ismael Pangadas were subject to red-tagging online following their arrest on a State of the Nation rally in July 2022 on human trafficking charges which were later dismissed.

In 2021, former spokespersons of NTF-ELCAC Lorraine Badoy and retired Lt. General Antonio Parlade drew a list of 38 universities nationwide which they alleged are recruitment grounds of the NPA and Communist Party of the Philippines.

Unmasking

Cabajes said COCOPEA’s withdrawal is a good step in unmasking the true purpose of NTF-ELCAC since its creation in 2018 by then-President Rodrigo Duterte through Executive Order 70, which institutionalized the government’s “whole-of-nation” approach to tackling the country’s communist rebellion.

Kabataan Partylist Representative Raoul Manuel said the withdrawal is “a positive development in protecting academic freedom in educational institutions” as he pointed out the NTF-ELCAC’s presence in schools has resulted in numerous violations of academic freedom, including surveillance of student organizations, harassment of progressive faculty members, and the arbitrary tagging of educational materials as “subversive.”

The youth solon urged the association to sever all ties with the task force.

“We urge COCOPEA to take this a step further by severing all ties with the NTF-ELCAC. It appears their aim to uphold academic freedom is half-hearted if they still cooperate with the biggest threat to it. Also, there should be clear policies in schools that will oppose red-tagging and militarization in campuses,” Manuel said.

Other groups such as the Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) supported COCOPEA’s move, saying the “withdrawal is a crucial step in defending academic freedom, upholding democratic participation, and the right to education—free from fear, profiling, red-tagging, and state-led repression.” (davaotoday.com)