Law allowing police, military to indoctrinate students needed —Bato

Police and military personnel should be allowed to conduct a form of "indoctrination" among students in state universities and colleges to compete with the supposed brainwashing activities of left-leaning organizations and "communists" in their campuses, Senator Ronald Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa made the remark on Sunday as his panel, the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, conducts an inquiry into cases of missing students after allegedly joining left-leaning groups.

In a Super Radyo dzBB interview, Dela Rosa said prohibiting the police and military to access SUC (state universities and colleges) campuses is  "detrimental" to government.

"Meron silang polisiya doon na bawal pumasok ang pulis o military sa loob ng kanilang campus para ma-avoid daw ang militarisasyon in the guise of academic freedom daw. Pero hinahayaan nila yung mga komunista na mag-recruit ng mga kabataang menor de edad sa loob ng kanilang paaralan," he said.

One of these institutions is the University of the Philippines (UP) where an accord between the League of Filipino Students and the Department of National Defense is in place that bars police and military from the campus without authorization from the university administration.

"Malaki ang imbalance ng pagpapabor, favored towards the left itong pag-iisip ng ibang mga eskwelahan na ito. Lalong-lalo na itong mga eskwelahan na gobyerno like PUP [Polytechnic University of the Philippines] and UP, dapat hindi ganito. They are using government resources and yet they are producing enemies of the state," Dela Rosa claimed.

According to him, the police and military, while inside the campus, should also talk to and "indoctrinate" students for the government to counter the "indoctrination" of left-leaning organizations.

"Makipag-usap [sila] sa mga bata. Kung anong indoctrination na ginagawa ng mga komunista doon sa loob, dapat merong indoctrination din yung maka-gobyerno para pantay, magkakaroon tayo ng race," he said.

"Dapat bibigyan din ng kalayaan ang ating kasundaluhan at kapulisan na makipaghalubilo at magbigay ng kuro-kuro sa mga estudyante doon sa loob at magkakaroon tayo ng race kung sino ang makukumbinsi, mas maraming ma-recruit. Papunta ba sa NPA (New People's Army) o papunta sa military o sa pulis?" he added.

But former Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casiño said that students who join left-wing organizations do not automatically become members of NPA.

"Malinaw sa charters ng mga 'yan ay ang nire-recruit nila ay mga kasapian nila para ipaglaban ang iba't ibang isyung pang-estudyante at pambayan. Ngayon, if it so happens na yung ilang kasapian nila ay nagdesisyon na magrebelde at mamundok, ibang usapin yun," Casiño said in a separate Super Radyo dzBB interview.

Dela Rosa, however, said Casiño is just making excuses.

"Maniwala ako diyan. Depensa lang nila 'yan para hindi sila bad-looking sa taumbayan. Bilangin mo yung estudyanteng menor de edad na umakyat na sa bundok. Kadami na," he said.

The police chief-turned-senator, during the Senate hearing last week, reported that a total of 513 minors allegedly recruited by the left-leaning group have already been "neutralized" in the past 20 years.

Dela Rosa said there should be a law that will allow police and military men to enter campuses of schools, universities and colleges so that their administrators will be forced to grant them access.

"Kailangan may batas. Para kapag hindi sila sumunod sa batas ay kaukulang kaparusahan," he said.

"Lalong-lalo na itong teachers na alam natin na ginagago ang mga estudyante natin na ayaw nilang pag-graduate-in, papasahin sa kanilang subjects kung hindi sumali sa immersion," he added.

Senate's public order panel will resume its hearing on the cases of allegedly missing students recruited by leftist groups will resume on Wednesday. —Erwin Colcol/LBG/BM, GMA News