Perception of 4th-year criminology students in Iloilo City towards the CPP-NPA and their attitude towards red-tagging

Abstract

The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) is portrayed negatively by the state, state forces, and the media. This negative portrayal of the organization fuels the counterinsurgency campaigns mainly done by the military and police. The security forces have also been flagged of red tagging leftist organizations accused of assisting the CPP-NPA. As future members of the police, this study aims to examine Iloilo City-based criminology students’ perception of CPP- NPA and their attitude toward red-tagging. The association between their perception and attitude and the manner by which concepts of communism and CPP-NPA were introduced to them in their university context were also examined. This study used a combined survey and in-depth interview of select respondents. Results show that Criminology students have generally negative perceptions of the CPP-NPA; they perceive the CPP-NPA as enemies of the state. Their ROTC program at large, together with their professors, and peers introduced the concept of CPP-NPA to them negatively, with their ROTC as the most significant. Despite this, students have a negative attitude toward red-tagging suggesting their disapproval of it. There is no association between their perception of CPP-NPA and their attitude towards red- tagging, which means their negative perception of the CPP-NPA does not lead to their approval of red-tagging.