Breaking Free From Communist Deception: HEARTLESS RECRUITERS

Young people, teens even minors, were lured into the Communist Party of the Philippine-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) revolutionary movement in exchange for deceitful promises of a better life. 

But in contrast to their supposed ultimate goal of uplifting the impoverished life of the poor, recruiters planted in the minds of their young recruits that the CPP-NPA’s revolutionary cause was the solution for all these problems. 

They have distorted morality in the minds of their young recruits who eventually made drastic decisions of breaking ties with their families to become full-time NPA warriors. The  young recruits were made to believe that CPP-NPA was more important than their families.  

The heartless CPP-NPA recruiters have shattered the dreams of many parents who only wanted to take care of their children and prepare them for a better future. Countless heartbroken mothers were pushed to agonizing grief and difficulties after finding out that their cherished children have already left home to fight for a meaningless ideology.

What kind of heartless monsters would snatch young people from their families only to bring them to the worst and doomed living conditions in the mountains?

Written by Leah Agonoy, a Pagadian-based journalist, and 53IB Commanding Officer Lt. Col. Jo-ar Herrera, the “BREAKING FREE” book highlights eye-opening narratives of actual accounts of young people’s fateful journeys who were once deceived but were able to break free from the shadows of communist deceptions in the Zamboanga Peninsula.