NTF-ELCAC Joins DepEd Regional Operations Group Meeting
JG May 22, 2023
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) joined the Department of Education (DepEd) Regional Operations Group Meeting at the Bulwagan ng Karunungan, DepEd Central Office, Pasig City.
This meeting comes days after Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte was designated as Co Vice Chair of the NTF-ELCAC. This underscores the importance of an intensive and comprehensive briefing for the regional heads of our public education sector about the current issues and challenges of communist armed conflict.
In attendance was Revsee Escobedo (Undersecretary for Governance and Field Operations), 14 Regional Directors of the DepEd, and 11 DepEd Secretariat Members.
The first day of the meeting was presided by NTF ELCAC Executive Director USec. Ernesto Torres Jr who conducted a briefing on the dual tactics of the Communist Terrorist Group (CTG), the national task force mandate, and its call to action to ensure that schools are not being used as venues for radicalization and recruitment.
Mr. Gab Dacanay, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), discussed the Infiltration of the Bureaucracy and Education Sector. The discussion was expanded with testimonies from resource speakers composed of those victimized by the CTG were: – Ms. Peach Tinio, former FQS Leader – Mr. Danmer Cayabyab, former CTG member from the MMRPC – Daniel Castillo, former CTG Political Instructor – Ms. Mary Mariveles, mother from the Hands Off Our Children Movement – Ms Ivy, former member and organizer of Kabataan Partylist and – Gelejurain Nguho, former Volunteer Teacher of CTG.