TWO armed New People’s Army leaders who clashed with patrolling Army troops in Baggao, Cagayan last February 13 have been identified as student ‘activists’ from the University of the Philippines and De La Salle University, an official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict said on Sunday.

Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, a spokesperson for the ELCAC’s Legal Cooperation Cluster said that one of the two guerrillas who were killed in the gunbattle in Barangay Margarita in Baggao municipality was identified as Paolo Macaraeg alias ‘Tobby,’ a resident of Cavite.

Macaraeg was described as an NPA finance officer who was monitored to have attended a CPP founding anniversary in Sto. Niño, Cagayan in 2016 before being involved in several attacks on government troops in the province in 2017.

The 2nd slain suspect was identified only as alias ‘Tisoy,’ a native of Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

“On February 13, 2023, two leaders of the CPP-NDF-NPA terrorist organization were killed in an encounter with government security forces in Baggao, Cagayan,” Gonzales said.

The official said that Macaraeg turned out to be a student activist from UP-Diliman.

He added that a 3rd casualty in the Baggao encounter identified as Orion Yoshida alias ‘Brown’ turned out to be a former DLSU student.

“He was left behind by his companions after he was wounded. He was given proper medical attention at the instance of the state security forces. Army soldiers saved his life,” said Gonzales.

According to the NTF-ELCAC official, Macaraeg and Yoshida were student activists who were members of the Kabataang Makabayan, an underground communist terrorist student organization that was openly admitted by the late Ka Joma Sison as an organization affiliated with the CPP-NDF-NPA.

Yoshida was said to be a former political science student of DLSU before joining the underground movement in 2015.

Gonzales said authorities are now investigating the backgrounds of the two to determine the CPP-NDF-NPA front organizations that recruited them to the armed leftist movement. UP-Diliman and DLSU are yet to comment on the statement of Gonzales.

Gonzales said that they are also investigating the personalities who recruited ‘Tisoy’ considering that he is a member of an indigenous community in Talaingod, living in so-called Geographically Isolated and Disadvantageous Areas known to be being taken advantage of by the NPA to recruit members and supporters.

Last February 13, soldiers from the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion were conducting combat patrol in the forested area of Bgy. Sta. Margarita when they clashed with an estimated 15 heavily-armed members of the CPP/NPA’s Cagayan Provincial Committee-Regional Committee- Cagayan Valley.

The initial clash left one of the guerrillas dead. Recovered from his possession was an M-16 automatic rifle with a loaded magazine.

A hot pursuit operation led to another encounter which killed the 2nd suspect who was found armed with an M-16 Bushmaster rifle with a magazine containing several live ammunition.

The 3rd suspect was found bleeding in the area and was treated by the soldiers.

“This recent incident is an eye opener to the Filipino people particularly to parents, students, and the members of the academe. The undeniable reality is that the deceptive recruitment of the CPP-NDF-NPA of our youth and students has no boundaries. The CPP-NDF-NPA targets our youth for recruitment,” said Gonzales.

According to the NTF-ELCAC official, “the CPP-NDF-NPA has no qualms about turning our brightest and promising young people into armed terrorists who eventually end up killed, or wounded in armed encounters with the military and the police.”

“In the end, what the CPP-NDF-NPA managed to accomplish is to ruin the lives and to waste the future of the students, and of the youth, whom they have deceived into joining the terrorist organization. The threat against our youth, our children, and our students is real. We ask the parents to be vigilant and to be watchful of their children,” he said.