NTF-ELCAC: Elevate Campus Debate, Confront Youth Recruitment into Insurgency

March 14, 2026

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has called on universities across the country to raise the level of discourse on insurgency, youth recruitment, and academic freedom, stressing that honest and responsible debate—not propaganda or slogans—must guide discussions in campuses if the nation is to achieve just peace and genuine nation-building.

In a statement, Undersecretary Ernesto C. Torres Jr., executive director of NTF-ELCAC, said recent social media debates triggered by a forum held last year at the University of Santo Tomas highlight the continuing tension between academic freedom and the need to openly confront the realities of insurgency and the recruitment of young people into armed struggle.

“Universities have always been spaces where ideas collide. Here, convictions are tested and difficult national questions are debated,” Torres said. “Our aim should always be to elevate discourse in ways that promote peace and academic freedom while steering conversations away from propaganda and toward just peace and nation-building.”

Torres emphasized that the government respects the vital role of academic institutions as venues for critical thinking and intellectual exchange, where students and faculty members can challenge each other’s views and examine even the most contentious national issues.

The forum held at UST, he noted, was part of this longstanding academic tradition.

However, Torres said individuals who speak about insurgency and youth recruitment—particularly former rebels and scholars with firsthand knowledge—should not automatically be dismissed as enemies of academic freedom.

“Many of those who speak candidly about these matters do so precisely because they have witnessed how young lives can be drawn into cycles of violence through ideological manipulation or what can be described as terror grooming,” he said.

According to Torres, professors and resource persons who raise these concerns deserve to be heard even when their views are strongly contested.

“Passionate debates are part of university life,” he said. “But the manner in which we engage each other—whether with respect or dismissal—ultimately determines whether dialogue enlightens or divides.”

Torres added that the controversy surrounding the UST forum reflects a broader national conversation about insurgency, genuine and peaceful activism, and the responsibility of institutions to protect young people from being drawn into armed conflict.

For decades, he noted, the Communist Party of the Philippines and its so-called national democratic organizations have invested significant effort in organizing within major universities and schools across the country with the end goal of indoctrinating the youth to embrace armed violence —a reality acknowledged by former members and even by the movement itself.

He stressed that this historical reality does not mean universities are to blame when some students later join armed insurgent groups.

“Many former rebels now working in peace-building recount how their political journeys began inside campuses where narratives romanticized armed struggle while downplaying its human cost,” Torres emphasized.

Because of this history, he said, discussions about recruitment, radicalization, and protecting the youth are necessary—even when they provoke discomfort or disagreement.

“The challenge before us is not to silence debate but to elevate it, and not to dismiss legitimate concerns with catchphrases like ‘red-tagging,’” Torres further stressed.

He urged both students and educators to ensure that academic spaces remain arenas for respectful but rigorous debate.

“Students must feel free to express dissenting views without fear of intimidation, just as educators and resource persons must be able to raise legitimate concerns about recruitment and insurgent influence without being automatically accused of malicious labeling,” he pointed out.

Torres said the NTF-ELCAC will continue engaging universities with openness and respect as part of the broader effort to strengthen democratic dialogue and safeguard Filipino youth.

“Our shared objective is to ensure that Filipino youth are equipped with truth, critical thinking, and opportunity,” he said. “They must not be drawn into conflicts that only prolong suffering and division.”