SANGGUNIANG Kabataan (SK) or Youth Council Federation president and Councilor Levy Orcales wants to calm both student activists and military.
Orcales in a message to youth activists said the government and the Baguio City Police Office will always be in the service of the people of Baguio.
The city official made the reaction after Kabataan Partylist-Cordillera spokesperson Christian Dave Ruz urged Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to make the anti-red tagging ordinance a priority and fast track its approval at the City Council.
Ruz said reports have been logged of military and police conducted seminars in schools complying with the CHED endorsement but said presentations done by the state forces have put certain students at risk to the extent of naming some school organizations as subversive.
Orcales noted it is a constitutional provision that schools are peace zones and presence of military men with high caliber guns must be out of place.
Ruz said reports say there were times state forces have shown students present in the audience on their videos and power point presentations during the on campus talks tagging them as rebels, making the students the center of attention.
Baguio campuses like the University of Baguio, Saint Louis University, the Benguet State University and the University of the Cordilleras had talks and seminars with the police dubbed as “Sulat Kamay” a safety and security forum.
“Both parties agreed that should no longer be any form of animosity between the groups because in the end what we all want is genuine development for the people and peace,” Orcales said.
“For as long as the military is working based from its mandate to secure communities from local insurgents, nothing is wrong. But as to their complaint, I believe and as stated by the military- they are just doing their job re: President Duterte’s whole of the nation approach on ending local violence,” the youth representative said.