Increased police visibility inside school campuses, particularly those considered as breeding grounds of the communist New People's Army ( NPA), may not deter recruitment by the leftist group, Malacanang said on Tuesday.

This as the Palace needs to study the proposal of Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Ano to revive the Anti-Subversion Law, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a press briefing.

"Let's see, that suggestion requires study also," he said.

Panelo said he has to get President Rodrigo Duterte's opinion on Ano's proposal.

Ano, a former military general, has raised the possibility of restoring the Anti-Subversion Law in the wake of many youths allegedly being indoctrinated by the Maoist rebels annually.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, on the other hand, proposed to increase police patrols inside the universities, particularly Polytechnic University of the Philippines, to deter recruitment by communist rebels.

"I wonder if the presence of the police will stop the recruitment. Because recruitments are usually done in secrecy," Panelo said.

He said NPA recruitment could also take place outside the campuses.

He said the presence of policemen inside school premises could only deter commission of crimes.

Asked if the Palace was concerned about the supposed recruitment of students by the Reds, Panelo, also chief presidential legal counsel, said, "Yeah, of course we are concerned especially because the parents are saying that some of their children are suddenly missing and then, later on, they will learn that they are already in the mountains or have been killed. Yeah, we are."

He urged parents to tell their children that the communism is an ideology that has "long passed and is passé and they should not entertain joining any kind of subversive organization for their own sake."

The Duterte administration has declared the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines as terrorist organizations. Celerina Monte/DMS