NTF-ELCAC Executive Director USec. Ernesto Torres Jr. (File photo)
BAGUIO CITY (PIA) –The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has shifted its focus to preventing the recruitment of youth by communist insurgents.
NTF-ELCAC Executive Director USec. Ernesto Torres Jr. said their focus now is informing the public about the “grooming process” of the communists by dismantling the support network that sustains recruitment activities.
“We explain to the people in communities the ’grooming’ for recruitment of students in schools. We teach everybody the indicators if the students are already being terror-groomed,” Torres said during the presentation of the Joint Regional Task Force-ELCAC 2024 1st Semester Accomplishment Report on July 8, 2024.
Torres said that “terror grooming” continues to be a constant threat, especially to the youth.
Earlier in the week, the ELCAC director said that the National Democratic Front is the foremost terror-groomer among the various terrorist groups operating in the country.
Further, he said that underground mass organizations carry out terrorist grooming activities through front organizations.
“Despite our success, our work is far from over as terror grooming continues to be a constant threat to the nation’s most vulnerable sectors, including our children,” he added.
Moreover, he said that ELCAC’s particular focus now is on information education campaigns against the terror-grooming process, including targeting, radicalization, arousing the aggressive spirits of the youth, and recruitment.
During the meeting, Torres also commended the Cordillera RTF-ELCAC for its initiative to establish a fact-finding technical working group on “red tagging.”
Torres said this would help in countering the “red tagging” accusation invented by the communist rebels to discredit the NTF-ELCAC and stop it from exposing the truth about the propaganda and deception of the communist rebels. (DEG-PIA CAR)
