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MANILA — A youth activist who survived aerial bombings in Mindoro has surfaced to denounce what she described as state-sponsored lies after the government’s anti-insurgency task force tagged her a victim of so-called “terror grooming.”

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict frequently claims that youth are “fooled” into becoming activists, which it often equates with “terrorism”.

On January 30, Stephanie Borinaga, a member of the national secretariat of Anakbayan, released a video statement rejecting claims by the NTF-ELCAC that she had been manipulated into joining armed rebels.

A day after, the video was deleted on Facebook.

Borinaga issued the statement days after the task force named her in a press briefing, She said the accusation placed her life in danger.

“Contrary to the lies of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the NTF-ELCAC, I am not missing and I did not join the New People’s Army,” Borinaga said in Filipino.

“I am releasing this statement because my life is under threat.”

Borinaga said her work in Mindoro was a conscious decision, not one one she was coerced into.

She had immersed with Mangyan Indigenous communities and peasant farmers following interactions during the October 2025 Peasant Month commemoration, where she first heard accounts of displacement, land grabbing, and militarization in Abra de Ilog.

“They spoke about how large corporations, backed by the military, are taking over their land,” she said. “They also told me how failed flood-control projects have repeatedly devastated their communities.”

At least 1,200 soldiers from the AFP’s 203rd Infantry Brigade, 76th Infantry Battalion, and 1st Infantry Battalion flooded barangay Cabacao in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro and shelled its foothills, January 1, ostensibly to conduct an “intelligence-driven defensive operation” against the revolutionary New People’s Army.

Read: Philippine military kicks off year with terror campaign in Mindoro, kills 4, injures 1

According to reports, the AFP and the NPA were in an armed encounter that began at 6:30 a.m.

At least four attack helicopters were used to conduct strafing operations from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and at least 12 bombs were dropped in the area.

“I did not go there to be a member of the New People’s Army. I was there in the foothills of the mountain and we could feel the ground shaking and the fear brought by the bombings of the military,” Borinaga said. “Even when we already secured distance away from the bombings, we could still hear the sound of helicopters roaming the island. We were anxious whenever we heard gunshots. We could not sleep well.”

The Provincial Social Welfare Office of Mindoro also stated that 769 individuals from 188 families were forced to evacuate their homes and flee the fighting.

The military offensives resulted in one youth activist killed.

Chantal Anicoche, a Filipino-American activist, had also been captured by the military.

Many youth activists and organizations have joined the call denouncing the state-sponsored vilification of Borinaga.

Mhing Gomez, national spokesperson of youth group Anakbayan, said the claim of “terror-grooming” is meant to tarnish the credibility of the youth and to criminalize their mass organizations.

“The state continues to shrink the space for young people to engage in public affairs. Youth who participate in protests are being charged with fabricated cases. Acts of solidarity and efforts to understand the conditions of oppressed sectors are being branded as terrorism. Our schools and communities are being militarized,” Gomez said in a statement in Filipino.

National alliance of women Gabriela said Borinaga’s courage in releasing statements serves as a “powerful rebuke to the desperate narratives spun by the AFP and the NTF-ELCAC.”

The group emphasized that the critical thinking and conviction of the youth to unearth the lived realities of the Filipino people should not be considered brainwashing.

“By reclaiming her agency and seeking systemic solutions for herself, she exposes the state’s ‘terror-grooming’ trope as a hollow attempt to silence those who dare to question the status quo,” Gabriela added.

Under international humanitarian law, civilians are entitled to protection during armed conflict.

Rights advocates have long warned that “terror-tagging” and “red-tagging” blur the distinction between civilians and combatants, placing non-combatants at grave risk.

The Supreme Court of the Philippines has recognized red-tagging as a threat to life, liberty, and security.

As a signatory to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, the Philippines is bound to uphold international humanitarian law and has criminalized violations under the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity or Republic Act 9851.

“The limits of youth’s social and political power to change the rotten system drive them to live the lives and join the struggle of the workers and peasants both in the cities and countryside,” Anakbayan said in its official statement.

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