LEADERSHIP TRAINING. Subanen youths in the far-flung village of Deporehan, Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur, undergo leadership training by the Army's 1st Cavalry Battalion from Friday (July 17, 2020) until Saturday (July 18, 2020). The training is to dissuade young people from joining the communist New People's Army. (PNA photo by Leah D. Agonoy)
PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur – The Philippine Army's 1st Cavalry Battalion held a two-day leadership training to dissuade Subanen youths from joining the ranks of the communist terrorist New People’s Army (NPA).
“Good leadership is a strong foundation needed for the youth not to be deceived by the wrong ideologies,” Lt. Col. Rommel Pereña, 1st Cavalry Battalion commander, said Saturday.
The two-day leadership training for Indigenous Peoples’ (Subanen) youths as well as the tribal leaders started Friday in Barangay Deporehan, Bayog town.
“Strengthened youth would solve the problem in the continuing fight against the rebels, while cooperation with the government would bring in peace and development in the barrio,” Pereña added.
Barangay Deporehan is at the borders of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur, and Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte. The village is 21 kilometers away from the town center of Bayog and 100 kilometers from this city.
The far-flung village, home to the Subanens, serves a passageway of the communist terrorist NPA from this province to Zamboanga del Norte, according to the military.
The NPA has long been using residents to procure food supply and other basic needs at the town center, Deporehan Barangay chairperson Edward Promon.
Promon said he is pushing to educate the Subanen youths to prevent them to easily believe in “the wrong ideology injected to them” by the NPA in recruiting new members.
Pereña warned Subanen youths not to join the NPA.
“With education, you would know when you are being fooled, learn the strategies on dealing with this approach. But joining them with their wrong ideology would not just harm you but would also hamper the development in the community," he told the participants.
Ronaldo Padua, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency-9 (NICA-9) assistant director, said young Subanens should avail of the Duterte administration's education programs for the IP youths.
Alex Langgiras, Western Mindanao Tribal Leaders Federation president, said most of the NPA fatalities in recent clashes with the military in this province and neighboring provinces of Zamboanga del Norte and Misamis Occidental were Subanen youths.
“You are strengthened and taught of the right ideology for peace and progress of the tribal communities. You are organized not to be recruited by the NPA. You are organized to convince them back to the government,” Langgiras told the trainees. (PNA)
