In a recent statement published by the official Facebook page of the National Task Force to end Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) the University was included among a list of universities that the CPP-NPA allegedly targets for radicalization and recruitment. This is published after the abrogation of the UP-DND accord, and an intensified red-tagging campaign being utilized to minimize democratic spaces and suppress critical voices against the Duterte administration.
This is not the first time that Holy Angel University was red-tagged. The Angelite’s Editorial Board were tagged as NPA recruiters and the logo of the University was also implicated by AFP-backed troll pages that were removed by Facebook. Some alumni were also red-tagged and have their faces posted in tarpaulins all around Angeles City.
With an administration that has a track record of murdering activists, farmers, workers, and suspected drug pushers, it is expected that the NTF-ELCAC will repress other universities as well. Malicious red-tagging of the military lacks sufficient evidence, wherein tagged individuals are assumed guilty until proven innocent. Much more grueling is the fact that lives have been taken due to these baseless accusations.
We dare the NTF-ELCAC to first address the corruption in the bureaucracy especially during the COVID pandemic and put a halt to their all-out-war against the Filipino people. This includes the non-stop land-grabbing, killing of farmers, activists, and innocent people as collateral damage.
The bloody war on drugs must be put to an end and the State must enact upon the interests of the poor; ending contractualization, genuine agrarian reforms, national industrialization, and raising the minimum wage before implicating universities and students in their red-tagging spree.
NTF-ELCAC is not welcome in Holy Angel University!
