THE CRIMINAL Investigation and Detection Group, along with two students-turned rebels, filed criminal charges against Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria ‘Joma’ Sison and three others before the Department of Justice earlier this month.

Maj. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of the CIDG, said the charges were filed by former University of the Philippines Visayas student James Saquino and a former student of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines who wished to stay anonymous.

Among the cases filed were violations of Section 3 in relation to Sec 3(a)(b) of RA 9208 as amended by RA 10364 and Section 4(i) of RA 10364 (Expanded Ant-Trafficking in Person of 2012), and of Section 10(a) in relation to Section 3(d) (4) of RA 7610 (Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Acts).

Also charged were Vince Hugo Villena and alleged recruiters for youth group Anakbayan Lean Porquia and Karen Edaniel.

Saquino said he was a 16-year-old first-year BS Accountancy student when he was recruited to join Anakbayan by Porquia and Edaniel in June 2007.

A month later, he became a member of the League of Filipino Students, where he was induced to take part in protest actions against tuition increase and in some of the group’s activities.

Saquino was recruited and joined the underground movement Kabataan Makabayan. At the age of 17, he was convinced by Porquia to run for student council where he won.

In April 2009, Saquino joined the Southern Front in Panay Island where he was tasked to organize the Anakbayan Panay Chapter.

He was then given bigger tasks and extensive authority as Anakbayan’s Regional Spokesperson and National Vice-Chairperson for Mindanao.

“The complainant held major positions in the said CTG. He was designated as Guerilla Front 20 Deputy Secretary at the same time as Secretary of Platoon Party Committee of SENTRO DE GRAVIDAD,” Maj. Gen. Ferro said.

“And in January 2017, he was the GF20 Front Secretary and Secretary of Sub-Regional Peasant Bureau,” he added.

PUP student

Meanwhile, the 24-year-old complainant, who used aliases ‘Ka Ugnay’, ‘Ka Dima’, ‘Ka Intoy Karagatan’,  and ‘Job Paolo Valencia’, was a freshman journalism student of PUP when a certain JR Valencia alias ‘Bimbi’ recruited him to join the LFS.

In May 2015, he joined a protest action with other LFS members from Liwasang Bonifacio to Mendiola as part of the Communist Terrorist Group Urban Operation.

He later joined the Kabataan Makabayan and became the Managing Editor of the school paper ‘The Catalyst’. It was then that he was named as the team leader of the propaganda movement of the CPP-NPA-NDF at PUP.

“During those times, he studied Lipunan at Rebolusyong Pilipino and Basic Party Course. Sometime in December 2015, while still a minor, he was immersed with the CTG under the Leo Cawilan Command of the CT’s in Kalinga headed by Ka Batid,” Ferro said.

“In the same month, the PUP student took his oath as a candidate member of the CPP and after a year, he became a full-fledged communist terrorist. He continued and undergone other radicalization courses and even recruited students of National University in Valenzuela City,” he added.

Two years later, the PUP student became an NPA fighter of the Sub-Regional Guerrilla Unit of Sub-Regional Command 5 in Sitio Bolo, Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

A month after, he was transferred to Guerrilla Front 34, SRC 5 in Agusan del Sur and became its Political Instructor and Intelligence Officer until September 2018.

He was then relocated to San Fernando, Bukidnon and became a staff of the Regional Politico-Military Academy of Southern Mindanao Regional Committee.

“While with the SMRC, he was promoted as the deputy secretary of SRC 5 where he served as Front Secretary of GF 3 and 34 of SRC 4, until his surrender to the government on November 28, 2020,” Ferro said.

The two former students said they decided to file complaints because they “finally realized that they were deceived by the communist movement.”

“I was recruited using the deceitful tactics of the CTG in arousing my childhood infirmities on social issues by injecting communist ideologies and radicalized having made to believe that the only way to change Philippine society is thru armed revolution,” the PUP student said.

He stressed that the CTG “exploited his vulnerability as a minor.”

“The systematic recruitment of the CTG denied me of my development, from a proficient government scholar I dropped out from study joining the armed revolution,” he said.

Meanwhile, Saquino pointed out that he “was used and brought in the frontlines by the CTG in the pursuit of their communist ideologies.”