For safekeeping With the gun ban in effect, firearms with expired licenses owned by private security agencies are inspected by Philippine National Police chief Director General Oscar Albayalde at Camp Crame yesterday. The guns will only be released when their papers are already in order. ANALY LABOR

The case of a University of Santo Tomas (UST) student who had gone missing after joining an “immersion with farmers” in Quezon Province confirms the active recruitment by communist rebels of students.

PNP, AFP ready to look for missing student Rizza Divine

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar Albayalde pointed this out yesterday even as he pledged police help to find 18-year-old Rizza Divine Camingawan.

The UST legal management student has not returned home since December when she asked permission from her parents to go to a mall only to declare in a Facebook post later that she had joined an immersion activity.

“This is what we have been saying before that we have recovered IDs of students during encounters with communist rebels,” Albayalde told reporters.

“Some of them are 22, 23 years old who were supposed to be in school but became casualties of this ongoing war against rebellion,” he added.

Albayalde urged the parents of Rizza Divine and those of other missing students to come out in the open and talk about their experiences so the police can help them.

“We want to help the relatives of this student. So, talk to us and we will help you search for your daughter,” Albayalde said.

The student’s father, Roland, earlier claimed she had already come home but his wife, Luisa, clarified last 19 January that she has yet to return.

Luisa said she had been in communication with Rizza Divine through text messages and phone calls, but that other people seemed to be telling the UST student what to tell them.

Col. Noel Detoyato, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman, said the case of Rizza Divine remains a police matter, but that the AFP will help look for the student if asked.

“Help will be given if the parents demand that we step in. Right now, it is a police matter and the concern of the school,” Detoyato said.

The League of Filipino Students earlier confirmed Rizza Divine’s participation in the immersion, but UST Simbahayan director Mark Anthony Abenir said they did not approve of any immersion proposal for the missing student.