The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) has withdrawn its membership from the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), citing the need to preserve academic freedom and to “strengthen” its “education initiative.”
The withdrawal came less than three months after it joined the task force, which has drawn flak for linking some activists and militant organizations to communist rebels.
“After further consultations among its member associations and upon review of its core advocacies, COCOPEA has opted to strengthen its education initiatives by preserving its collaboration role outside of a formal membership in the NTF-ELCAC,” COCOPEA, the country’s largest group of private schools, said in a statement issued on Sunday, Feb. 2.
“While COCOPEA respectfully withdraws membership from the NTF-ELCAC, it remains one with NTF-ELCAC’s mission to achieve unity, peace, security and socioeconomic development,” it added.
COCOPEA had formalized its membership in the NTF-ELCAC executive committee on Nov. 8 last year. In an earlier statement, the task force said the collaboration showed the commitment to create “safe learning spaces that respect academic freedom.”
NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres, Jr. said the group would aid in the information awareness campaign against the “terror grooming” of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.
However, some groups criticized COCOPEA’s decision to join the NTF-ELCAC, raising concerns over academic freedom and the red-baiting accusations against the task force.
In a statement released after COCOPEA’s inclusion in the task force, the League of Filipino Students (LFS) said the membership of the 1500-strong private school body makes millions of students “vulnerable” to red-baiting.
“The League is especially concerned by how this move may further silence students fighting against repressive policies and yearly tuition fee hikes. A school like the University of Santo Tomas —already notorious for silencing student publications, organizations, and activists—may feel more emboldened to violate democratic rights,” the LFS said last Nov. 9.
Despite its withdrawal from the NTF-ELCAC, COCOPEA vowed to continue to cooperate with the task force on issues that align with its goals and objectives.
COCOPEA is the umbrella group of the Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges, and Universities, the Association of Christian Schools, Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities and the Unified TVET of the Philippines. F – Ma. Alyanna Selda