ANTI-INSURGENCY | Security officials reject calls for NTF-ELCAC abolition

February 2, 2024 , 08:26 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(February 2, 2024) – Security officials on Friday took exception to calls from a United Nations (UN) rights expert to abolish the country’s anti-insurgency task force, noting that the government’s fight against the Maoist-led rebellion is not yet over.

Retired general Ernesto Torres Jr., executive director of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), said the task force is not outdated because it has effectively ended the country’s longest-running insurgency problem.

“Advocating for good governance through the ‘whole-of-nation/whole-of-government participation’ approach never gets outdated,” Torres said in a news release. “It has been very successful in its campaign in the past five years. It cannot be outdated because all the politico-military capabilities of the CPP-NPA-NDF had been disabled over the last five years.”

He said the NTF-ELCAC would transition into a “national task force that will promote unity, peace, and development” only if the guerilla fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines, its armed wing New People’s Army, and its political wing the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) are defeated.

Last month, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. claimed the NPA no longer has any active guerrilla front, numbers that the Communist guerilla movement has denied. The NTF-ELCAC said only 11 weakened fronts currently remain.

The national security adviser, Eduardo Año, also said he “respectfully disagrees” with Khan’s recommendation to abolish the NTF-ELCAC.

“We are already at strategic victory in our campaign against the CPP-NPA-NDF, and to turn back now will be counterproductive and would render moot the “whole of nation” approach that has been very successful in breaking the back of the CPP-NPA-NDF in the past 5 years,” Año said in a statement.

Irene Khan, the UN special rapporteur for freedom of expression and opinion, recommended the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC to address concerns that the task force has fueled “red-tagging” – the act of accusing civil society actors of supporting or participating in the Maoist-led rebellion.

Local and international human rights groups have voiced concerns that “red-tagging” exposed civilian activists, journalists, rights defenders, and humanitarian workers to harassment, attacks, and in some cases, even killings.

The UN expert also said the agency has become “outdated” and no longer considers ongoing peace negotiations.

Several groups and individuals have filed criminal and administrative cases against former officials of the NTF-ELCAC for accusing them of links to the rebellion. In one of the cases, the Office of the Ombudsman reprimanded two of the task force’s former spokespersons last year.

NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya insisted the NTF-ELCAC does not “encourage nor support” the practice of “red-tagging.”

“We wish to underscore once again the Marcos Administration has not issued any law, rule, or policy instrument that implements ‘red tagging’ or even uses the word ‘red-tagging.’ The term has no basis,” Malaya said in a statement.

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