The NPA does not allow below-18 recruits-CPP

We take exception to news reports based on claims made by Prof. Nymia Simbulan in her book Deadly Playgrounds: The Phenomenon of Child Soldiers in the Philippines that the New People's Army (NPA) recruits children as Red fighters. We have yet to read the book itself, and we reserve the right to react to its particular contents once we obtain a copy. At the same time, we see the need to restate publicly the CPP's policy against the recruitment of children as combatants.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is unequivocal in its policy prohibiting the recruitment of anyone under 18 years of age into the NPA. This policy clarified a previous general policy that did not specify any age limit. The policy was clearly stipulated in the rules of the NPA and pertinent resolutions of the CPP Political Bureau in 1988, affirmed in a 1999 memorandum of the CPP Central Commiitee's Executive Committee (CC-EC) and further reinforced in resolutions of the CPP Central Committee in its 11th plenum in late 2002.

Through the National Democratic Front (NDF), the CPP/NPA has also declared its accession to international rules of war and to the Geneva Conventions and its related protocols.

The CPP requires the NPA to strictly comply with the policy and allows no exceptions to it. In applying the policy, NPA Red fighters discovered to have failed to meet the new age requirement are discharged from the NPA and reassigned to various other non-combat and non-hazardous tasks as civilian activists or else sent home to support family production or continue their schooling.

The CPP sees the need to state these policies clearly in the face of malicious statements repeated ad nauseum by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) accusing the NPA of recruiting minors. These psywar claims aim to cover up the oppression experienced by children as a result of the AFP military operations as well as the military's utilization of children in its military operations through force or guile. Children continue to be victimized by the AFP directly in the form of forcible recruitment into paramilitary groups and as guides in military operations. Children are among those who suffer the greatest trauma due to their own experiences of arrest, torture and threats. They are likewise traumatized when they witness the arrest, mauling or summary execution of their parents or other family members by AFP troops and when they are part of entire communities forcibly displaced by brutal military operations or are victimized by food and economic blockades.

The CPP also sees the need to state these policies clearly in order to constantly remind NPA units to be circumspect in their recruitment efforts or in accepting volunteers. In the face of extreme oppression, poverty and suppression, NPA units are confronted on a daily basis by youthful volunteers who wish to join the people's army but fail to meet the minimum age requirement.

Conscious of the CPP policy, NPA units encourage these volunteers to take on other non-combatant and non-hazardous tasks.

(sgd) Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal
Spokesman
Communist Party of the Philippines