PAGADIAN CITY – Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar on Monday condemned the alleged child recruitment of the communist-terrorist group New People’s Army (NPA), stressing that it thieves children’s opportunity to grow in a healthy environment.

This statement transpired during a media engagement with the members of the Pagadian City Press Club on Monday, February 15, 2021, where reports of the NPA’s recruitment and exploitation of minors in Zamboanga del Sur was presented by the media.

“This only proves that the leftists really have child warriors and the future and the dreams of these minors are slowly laid to waste as they pledge their allegiance to these groups through deception,” he said.

Secretary Andanar cited the policies and programs of the government for the youth that they should maximize.

“The President already has numerous policies for them – free education, free healthcare. And these will be useless if their minds are already fixed on the wrong ideologies,” he said.

Secretary Andanar is the designated Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security for Region 10 (CORDS X). He assured that the efforts of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) trickle down to the grassroots level in conflict-affected and poverty-stricken areas across the country, including Zamboanga del Sur. ###