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Sotto expresses dismay on NPA recruitment of minors: Senate President Vicente Sotto III expresses his dismay over the recruitment of minors by left-wing organizations during the hybrid hearing of the Committee on National Defense & Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation looking into the alleged red-tagging and red-baiting of certain celebrities, personalities, institutions and organizations Tuesday, November 3, 2020. Sotto asked Jeffrey Celiz, a former high-ranking official of the New People’s Army (NPA), on the age bracket of recruits and if rape and similar abuses against child soldiers are common occurrences within the NPA ranks. Celiz told Sotto that children in the rural areas are being influenced as early as six years old and formally recruited youth ages 16 to 17 years old in urban areas. “We usually give the death sentence if they rape women but not when the culprit is a high-ranking officer,” Celiz told Sotto. (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB).