Manila, Jan. 6 -- The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Tuesday said the series of encounters in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro on New Year's Day has revealed the New People's Army's (NPA) terror grooming operations that had insurgents pulling young Filipinos away from school, family, and civilian life, and leading them toward violence and, in some tragic cases, even death.

NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., in a statement, added that this incident has shown how terror-grooming works as terror grooming recruiters exploit the vulnerability, idealism, and grievances of their intended youth targets and feed them romanticized narratives of struggle while concealing the rea...