MANILA — Miriam College (MC) has denounced the government's anti-communist insurgency task force for the unauthorized use of a photo of its students in an online forum.

In a recent statement, MC President Laura del Rosario said the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) grabbed the photo from the school's official website and used it in an online forum facilitated through Facebook last January.

The video of the forum has been deleted on the NTF-ELCAC's page but Del Rosario said the event was titled "Para sa Youth PH: The Relaunching."

Del Rosario said the forum's video was accompanied by a post that read, "Makakasama natin ang mga student leaders mula sa iba't-ibang unibersidad upang talakayin ang isyu sa Redtagging, DND-UP Agreement, at Anti-Terror Act of 2020."

(We will be joined by student leaders from different universities to discuss the issue of redtagging, the UP-DND Agreement, and the Anti-Terror Act of 2020.)

"It has reached our attention that a cropped group photo of our high school students was used in one of the presentations of the said online forum. Please be informed that this photo was grabbed, without permission, from our school’s official website," she said.

Del Rosario said the students in the photo represented MC at an international competition held at Yale University in the United States in 2019.

"Our school sought permission from their parents/legal guardians to take and upload their photos on our school’s website because they are minors and are only completing high school education in Miriam College," she said.

Last May 10, MC sent a letter to the NTF-ELCAC, asking the task force to remove the photo of its students, Del Rosario said.

"We asked them to exercise caution and discretion in uploading photos on social media especially those that involve minors," she said.

Del Rosario added that MC "is an institution that is seriously committed to promoting peace in our homes, schools, and communities."

In January, NTF-ELCAC Spokesperson Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade claimed that 18 Philippine colleges and universities were hotbeds for recruitment into the New People's Army.

• Several universities blast AFP claim campuses are NPA ‘recruitment havens’
• PUP, Catholic schools reject red tagging

— Report from Jaehwa Bernardo, ABS-CBN News

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