There is nothing wrong with school officials knowing the activities going on among the youth on their campuses, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said Thursday, May 21.
Lacson said his call for vigilance was addressed to school administrations.
“They should be aware of the activities because there is information that recruitment is going on within school campuses,” he said.
The recruitment is not immediately to join the New People’s Army, but it could lead to that, he added.
Florence Guzon, Kabataan Partylist Vice President for Visayas, in a statement issued on Wednesday said “We view with grave concern the pronouncement of the governor encouraging the monitoring of student activities on campuses, particularly in state universities, as if coaxing our academic institutions to perform intelligence work on our students”.
“What the governor wishes to do only stands to stifle academic freedom, critical thinking, and the holistic development of the youth in our academic institutions,” he said.
“This is subtle red-tagging, and a dangerous false equivalence that puts in harm’s way students who genuinely wish to serve marginalized communities and advance the rights and interests of the least of us,” Guzon added.
“I respect their opinions, but they should also respect other opinions,” Lacson said.
Guzon called on the governor, and the government, to resume the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines to begin anew the process of genuinely addressing the grievances of those who have been disillusioned by decades of unrealized promises of land reform and poverty alleviation in the country.*
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