NO TO “RED-TAGGING” Students from the University of the Philippines Manila protest the military’s “Red-tagging” of 18 Metro schools, including their own.—LYN RILLON
Communist rebels mocked the military for claiming that because of the discovery of the so-called Red October plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte, the supposed plotters were forced to abandon and scrap the plan.
“The military psywar invented the Red October plot, they also withdrew this when it didn’t sell and when the people didn’t believe it,” exiled Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison remarked from his base in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
The CPP said in a statement on Saturday that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana “made himself look stupid by claiming that the Armed Forces of the Philippines had successfully foiled Red October, a plot which they themselves invented.”
Incredulous public reaction
“This is after several weeks of failing to convince the incredulous public of the existence of a supposed conspiracy between various political forces [and] the CPP to oust Duterte and instead rousing widespread indignation and [a] display of vigilance against Duterte’s insidious plans,” it added.
But the CPP warned that despite the absence of the Red October plot, anti-Duterte forces would continue the struggle to topple down the administration.
“The AFP may have ended its Red October fairy tale but the real and life-and-death struggle of the Filipino people to oust the Duterte regime continues,” the CPP said.
Ever since the Red October plot was reported in the media, Sison and the CPP had strongly denied its existence.
Sison even said the alleged plan “[was] a figment of Duterte’s imagination.”
On Friday, Lorenzana claimed that communist rebels were forced to scrap the plan because it was exposed.
Plot no longer feasible
“The plot [was] discovered so it’s no longer feasible. It’s a goner,” he told reporters.
The AFP earlier claimed that the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), were trying to join forces with the opposition Liberal Party and so-called government destabilizers, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the Magdalo group.
It also said that the CPP had been recruiting students from 18 universities and colleges in Metro Manila to join the ouster plot, an allegation denied by school officials.
Recruitment going on?
But in a statement on Sunday, Capt. Catherine Hapin, public affairs officer of the Army’s 7th infantry Kaugnay division, cautioned parents against the ongoing “intensified covert recruitment that the CPP-NPA conducts” in educational institutions.
“It is not surprising that the youth are the target recruits of communist terrorist groups as they are idealistic, vulnerable to radicalism and easy to train,” Hapin said.
“They would then teach them about communism and indoctrinate them about activism. An invitation to join rallies would come next. After they have proven their passion and courage in a number of demonstrations and rallies, they will then be ‘immersed’ in a community where they get their first exposure with the armed group of the NPA,” she added.
The Army’s 7th infantry division is based at Fort Ramon Magsaysay in Palayan City. —With a report from Jeannette I. Andrade