Gapay wants teachers, parents to monitor students online for ‘possibility’ of Red recruitment

Armed Forces chief Lieutenant General Gilbert Gapay on Wednesday appealed to teachers and parents to monitor the online activities of their students, especially as classes have moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This, said Gapay, is to prevent students from being recruited to join the Communist Party of the Philippines' New People's Army (CPP-NPA).

"We really cannot discount that possibility na 'yung mga anak natin are really browsing itong mga accounts and sites that are being run ng mga CPP-NPA front organizations," Gapay said at a press briefing.

"Sa AFP naman we identify, may na-identify na tayong mga sites that are being run by CPP-NPA. And ang hiling nga namin, for the faculty themselves to really look into this, to ensure that 'yung mga ina-access ng estudyante nila ay 'yung authorized sites ng eskwelahan," he added.

Gapay also underscored that the parents have an important role in monitoring the online activities of their children.

"For all we know, nire-recruit na sila doon, nira-radicalize na sila and eventually, given the opportunity, they will go on field trips kunwari..."he said.

This comes amid Facebook's taking down of a network of fake accounts and pages allegedly linked to the Philippine military and police due to coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB), a violation of its community standards.

The network's activities included concerted criticism of communism, youth activists, and the opposition.

The military has long alleged that schools are hotbeds of communist recruitment, with a top official naming several schools where students were supposedly being recruited for an ouster plot against the President. 

The schools have denied the allegations and decried the military's "red-tagging."

On the part of the Philippine National Police, Police General Camilo Pancratius Cascolan said he already directed the regional directors to "go down" to universities to prevent the recruitment of the students.

He also believes that any recruitment among students will be low amid the current joint efforts of the AFP and PNP.

"As I have said there is a possibility... but the probability will always be low if we forge our partnership, enhance and improve all our initiatives," Cascolan said. — BM, GMA News