Rebs recruiting students from Luzon universities

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — Communist rebels are recruiting students from state universities in Central Luzon and eastern Pangasinan, a development that has alarmed school authorities.

Panfilo Repollo, dean of student affairs of the Pangasinan State University in Sta. Maria town, admitted the New People’s Army’s recruitment blitz has alerted them.

So far though, Repollo said there have been "no untoward movement of our students."

"But we will still (carry out) some measures to protect them from being swayed by the NPA," he said.

Col. William Campos, commander of the Army’s 71st Infantry Battalion based in San Jose City, said the rebels are possibly expanding their area of operation in eastern Pangasinan by recruiting university students there.

"They are trying to encroach on eastern Pangasinan but cannot establish a stronghold because their plans are pre-empted by the active monitoring of the police and the military as well as the active cooperation of barangay officials and the people," he said.

Campos said the military’s constant dialogues with barangay leaders have also stalled the NPA’s efforts to beef up its mass base.

The Army officer revealed that one of two guerrillas captured after a clash at the boundary of Rosales, Pangasinan and Cuyapo, Nueva Ecija was a student.

Campos identified the student-rebel as Jojo Supnet, vice chairman of the Anakbayan chapter at the Central Luzon State University in Nueva Ecija.

Supnet, he said, is a political officer of the NPA’s Nueva Ecija command and a leader of the leftist party-list group Bayan Muna.

The other captured guerrilla was James Bara, an NPA regular. Seized during the clash were three M-16 Armalite rifles, a caliber .45 pistol, 75 rifle grenades, six hand grenades and voluminous subversive documents.

In another development, the Army’s 8th Infantry Division based in Catbalogan, Samar has downplayed threats of the NPA’s Eastern Visayas Regional Party Committee to attack power plants and communication facilities in the region. — With Ricky Bautista