KARAPATAN condemns the entry of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) into the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) as a private sector representative.
COCOPEA is an umbrella group of several private school organizations. Its membership in the NTF-ELCAC means that the task force’s so-called “information drives,” which are actually red-tagging seminars, will be part of the routine in some 1,500 schools constituting its membership.
“We are profoundly disappointed with the COCOPEA’s decision to become part of the NTF-ELCAC’s red-tagging ambit, despite the fact that red-tagging has already been defined by the Supreme Court as a threat to life, liberty and security,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
“This puts COCOPEA, which includes many Catholic schools, at odds with the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) which reversed an earlier decision by one of its commissions to become one of the NTF-ELCAC’s instrumentalities for red-baiting,” said Palabay.
“It is especially ironic that COCOPEA is currently chaired by the Catholic Educators’ Association of the Philippines,” she added.
“In addition,” said Palabay, “many of the private schools under COCOPEA are already notorious for charging exorbitant fees, suppressing campus journalism and freedom of association, and promoting an atmosphere hostile to academic freedom and students’ democratic rights,” said Palabay. “Now, we have just learned that red-tagging will be added to this toxic mix.”
“We hope that the more open-minded members of COCOPEA will prevail on its leadership to be more circumspect and emulate the example shown by the CBCP, which withdrew its membership, preferring to maintain its independence,” said Palabay. “Otherwise, it will be an even darker day for human rights in our country when even gradeschoolers in COCOPEA’s private schools will be taught, in red-tagging seminars, that political intolerance and bigotry are ideals, that political dissent is wrong, and that it is all right to suppress the democratic rights of freedom of association, assembly and free expression.”