The Liga Independencia Pilipinas has petitioned the Commission on Elections to disqualify the Kabataan Party-List from the 2022 national elections.
In a statement, Jose Antonio “Ka Pep” Goitia, Secretary-General of LIPI, said Kabataan is a known legal front of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front identified by the government as a terrorist organization.
“Kabataan has filed their manifestation of intent to vie for seat in the 2022 elections under the guise to fight for health, aid, jobs, education and justice,” Goitia said.
“We urge the Comelec to disqualify and bar the Kabataan party-list from running in the elections as a result of its on-campus recruitment of students as combatants for the New People's Army,” he added.
Kabataan has yet to react to the statement at presstime.
Goitia said there is “overwhelming evidence that Sara Elago and her cohorts are active members of the Communist Party of the Philippines based on the testimonies of former Kabataan party-list members and former cadres of the communist criminal organization.”
“Alms Gabin, one of the Kabataan party's founding members and decision-makers, has testified about the true goal of pushing the CPP-NPA ideology in the legislative branch as well as destabilizing the government from within,” he said.
The task of Jade Sinco from Samar, a former provincial Secretary-General of the Kabataan Party, was to direct the youth organizations to recruit and campaign for the CPP-NPA, Goitia added.
“The most glaring evidence is a video on the 50th Anniversary of the Kabataang Makabayan (KM) last 2014. KM is one of the founding members of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines alongside the CPP-NPA in 1973. The video can be found in YouTube under the title EXPOSED: Youth Groups affiliated with the CPP-NPA,” he said.
“What is brutally shocking is this presentation was performed in the University of the Philippines Diliman,” Goitia said.
This, he said, established the link of the CPP-NPA with activist youth groups such as Anakbayan, League of Filipino Students, College editors Guild of the Philippines, National Union of Students in the Philippines, Kabataan Party-list among others.
“A well-directed mind conditioning presentation depicting students carrying guns and singing revolutionary songs, film documentaries glorifying the deeds of the New People's Army since its inception, and skits advocating communist ideology and the overthrow of the Philippine government. The final segment of the video challenges its members to recruit young people to join the NPA,” Goitia said.
Nonetheless, he said some segments of society “deny the heinous nature of these communist-brainwashed youth organizations.”
“This is what our government had warned the UP administration about. Not to take these organizations' presence on their campuses for granted. Many of our children have been killed in the name of a now-defunct ideology, used as pawns in a violent battle between evil men who only want chaos and destruction,” Goitia said.
“Our Constitution guarantees the right to participate in our country's democratic process. We do, however, have the right to take action by strongly denouncing those who exploit this freedom to destroy our institutions and the nuclear family,” he said.
“The conscription of our students into the New People's Army by the Kabataan party-list in order for them to take up arms against the nation is a violation of this right. We now know that the call to recruit was a commitment made during the 50th Anniversary of the Kabataang Makabayan celebration in 2014 at UP Diliman,” Goitia said.
“This is treasonous and must be put an end to. It is inexcusable that we are all suffering as a result of technicalities that allow terrorists to freely roam the halls of Congress. We demand the complete annihilation of the CPP-NPA-NDF threat,” he added.
