Negros Oriental police provincial director, Senior Supt. Augusto Marquez, yesterday said the three college students arrested after a clash in Sitio Pulangyuta, Brgy. Mayabon in Zamboanguita, may have been duped by communist leaders and recruited into the activist movement.

Marquez said he will request for a meeting with the regional police and military intelligence offices to discuss the recruitment of college students into communist organizations. 

Arrested were alleged New People's Army recruits Glenn Absin, 22, of Guihulngan, Negros Oriental, a Political Science student of the University of Cebu; Karlo Cabahug, 22, of Talamban, Cebu, who studies at San Carlos University; and Maria Carla Alvarico, 22, a nursing graduate from Velez College, from Madaue City.

Alvarico and the late Rachalle Mae Palang were schoolmates at  Velez College. Palang was killed in an encounter in the hinterlands of Zamboaguita last year while on alleged medical mission.

Marquez said they  will appeal to  the Board of Directors of  the  Velez  College, San Carlos University  and University of  Cebu to encourage  their students to choose organizations that do not endanger  their security and  future. 

Marquez also said the three students were fortunate they were not hit in the encounter between military troops and unidentified armed men in the hinterland of Zamboanguita.

Lt. Col. Bernard Erwin Neri, 79th Infantry Battalion commander, had earlier encouraged the parents especially of college students to monitor the whereabouts of their children.

He said Alvarico, Absin and Cabahug claimed they were on a touring visit in Zamboaguita and denied that they are recruits of the NPA. 

Among the things recovered from them, Neri said, were subversive documents about activist and communist movements. 

The military has been receiving reports from residents on the presence of unidentified armed men patrolling the area, he said, adding that the barangay captain of  Mayabon has confirmed the presence of armed men and groups of  young people  who are not from their place.*MA

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