Private schools group COCOPEA joins NTF ELCAC

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) on Friday said the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) is now part of its executive committee.

“It was approved by [President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong” Marcos Jr.] the inclusion of COCOPEA, as one of the two private representatives to be an official member of the NTF ELCAC,” NTF ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. said in a press briefing after a meeting with Marcos.

COCOPEA chairperson Father Albert Delvo represented his organization, which is composed of at least 1,500 private schools nationwide.

Torres said COCOPEA’s inclusion in NTF ELCAC’s executive committee will “broaden the information awareness campaign” of the anti-insurgency task force against the “terror grooming” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) and its armed wing, the New People's Army (NPA).

“For the students specifically, to be able to exercise their right to an informed choice, a choice that would not harm themselves, their school, their family, their community, and our country, so that it would be fair with them,” he said.

“It is actually our constitutional mandate to serve and protect the Filipino people, to include the students. And part of really protecting them is providing them the right information about questionable organizations and personalities for them to protect themselves,” he added.

GMA News Online reached out to COCOPEA for statement and will publish it as soon as available.—AOL, GMA Integrated News