THERE is a disturbing note in the recent report about the death of a Cebuano student in an encounter with the elements of the military in Negros Oriental.

The report said the students were New People’s Army (NPA) recruits. This recalls a similar situation in the early 1950s when the communist scare was at its height. Anyone who expressed pro-country sentiments then and was against the corrupt Quirino administration was held suspect.

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At that time, I was a junior student in the University of the Philippines in Diliman and had become a member of the UP Writers Club and later the Club’s president. In those days, a sort of witch hunt was in place in the campus and those who were vocal against corruption in the government were the suspects.

There was a clear misconception on the part of the military intelligence community regarding students who showed pro-country sentiment and commitment, taking them as being pro-communist. It meant then that anyone who criticized the operation of government while expressing his nationalist or pro-country sentiment was by the same token anti-administration, and hence, pro-communist in the military view.

I remember that former senator Claro Recto, the Philippines’ nationalist guru, was looked up to by the military as a communist suspect, and his office in Escolta was a military intelligence target. Our group in Diliman was considered disciple of Don Claro. As UP Writers Club members, we were close to Jose Lansang, an old club member and Philippines Herald editorial writer, residing inside the Diliman campus.

It was said the military believed Joe was a member of the Communist politburo, but to us, like Don Claro, he was a nationalist. He was very knowledgeable about our country’s socio-economic and political history. It was from him we learned how to look at the national condition objectively, acquiring the basic analytical skill in looking at developing events with critical eyes.

The truth, however, was that we were simply driven more by a concern of our national condition than of being communists. Today, communism is dead. The NPA is no more a communist rebel than just a refuge of our misunderstood intellectual young.

Many years ago, when I was appointed regional director of the Ministry of Information for Central Visayas, a military intelligence officer told me that they wondered how I became head of the MPI when I was in their list of communist suspects. Our military should try to distinguish our young intellectuals from the rebels.