‘Silva Files’ bare PH schools as centers of CPP-NPA recruitment

DOCUMENTS downloaded and ‘decrypted’ by the intelligence community from the files of a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), have belied the collective and individual public denials of the administrators of the country’s various universities and colleges on the presence of CPP agitators and recruiters targeting students and members of their faculties.

According to the so-called, ‘Silva Files,’ 38 of the country’s leading universities and colleges, among them, all the campuses of the University of the Philippines (UP), have become “recruitment grounds” for the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), which explains why the two terrorist groups have managed to sustain their ‘armed struggle’ for more than 50 years now in an effort to create their own version of a ‘communist Philippines.’

The files were taken from Adelberto Silva, CPP central committee member and head of the party’s National Organizations Department, after his second arrest in 2018.

Silva for a while served as CPP chair and secretary with the arrest of the Tiamzon couple, Benito and Wilma, on March 22, 2014 in Cebu province.

At the time of their arrest, Benito has been tagged by the military as CPP chair and Wilma, the party secretary.

Silva’s tenure, however, was brief, as he was also arrested just several months later, on June 3, 2015, at an apartment in Bacoor, Cavite province.

When Pres. Duterte was elected in 2016, he ordered the release, on bail, of all the arrested officials of the CPP such as the Tiamzons and Silva, after agreeing for the continuation of the peace talks.

When the peace talks collapse in late 2017, the court cancelled the bail of the CPP leaders leading to the subsequent arrest of Silva and another central committee member, Vicente Ladlad, head of the National United Front Commission, in 2018.

“A wealth of information”

These include the list of all colleges and universities all over the country where the CPP, thru its front organizations, had managed to successfully infiltrate (See the complete list in this issue below). 

Schools failed to act despite knowledge

Southern Luzon commanding general, Lt. General Antonio ‘Jun’ Parlade, in a statement, said the country’s school administrators were provided with this list just months after the military extracted the information from Silva.

He said the turnover of the information was made by the government thru the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), during its meeting three years ago (2018) with the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP).

Parlade, also spokesperson of the task force, said the turnover of the information was made by the government “in good faith” and on the understanding that school authorities would promptly take action.

“Yet the same universities have failed to disclose such information to their constituents or address the problem despite giving their word,” Parlade said.

The intelligence community released the ‘Silva Files’ on CPP infiltration of the country’s schools and universities in support of the stand taken by Department of National Defense (DND) secretary, Delfin Lorenzana, terminating the DND- University of the Philippines agreement signed in 1989, which barred the entry of police and military personnel inside all UP campuses without prior consent of university officials.

The agreement went void last January 15, 2021. Aside from noting that “times and circumstances have changed,” Lorenzana lamented that the “country’s premier state university has become a safe haven for enemies of the state.”

Governments sources also bared that Lorenzana’s patience had simply run out on officials of UP who, despite already having knowledge of the Silva Files, continue to take no action to address the problem of CPP infiltration and recruitment.

The names of schools recovered from the Silva Files:

(Note: *According to ex-CPP cadre, Joy James ‘Ka Amihan’/JJ Saguino; ** according to ex-CPP cadre Ivy Lyn ‘Ka Red’ Orpin)

1. UP Diliman
2. UP Manila
3. University of Sto. Tomas
4. Far Eastern University
5. Polytechnic University of the Philippines
6. University of the East
7. Ateneo de Manila University
8. University of Makati
9. University of Caloocan City
10. Bulacan State University
11. Arellano University
12. Holy Trinity University
13. UP Visayas
14. UP Cebu
15. West Visayas State University
16. Eulogio Amang Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology (Earist)
17. Central Philippines University
18. Emilio Aguinaldo College
19. Cavite State University
20. Batangas State University
21. UP Baguio
22. UP Tacloban
23. Mindanao State University, Iligan and MSU, General Santos City
24. Holy Angel University
25. 25.Tarlac State University
26. Bukidnon State University
27. Benguet State University
28. Ifugao State University
29. University of Eastern Philippines
30. University of Southeastern Philippines
31. Ateneo de Davao
32. Xavier University
33. Filamer Christian University
34. Capiz State University
35. Aklan State University
36. Bicol University
37. Ateneo de Naga
38. St. Thomas Aquinas University
39. Western Mindanao State University (Wemsu)*
40. Cagayan Valley State University**
41. Nueva Viscaya State University**
42. Isabela State University-Echague**