Manila, May 18 -- The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Monday called the death of former student leader, Vince Francis Dingding, one of the five reported New People's Army (NPA) members killed in the May 16 clash in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, a case of terror grooming.

"His death is another painful reminder of the continuing tragedy caused by the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front) terror-grooming pipeline -a process that preys on the idealism of young Filipinos and draws them from advocacy spaces into underground networks and, eventually, armed struggle," the body said in a statement.

In the Cauayan encounter, the NTF-ELCAC said government...