THE National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) would recommend for President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong/BBM’ Marcos Jr., to grant amnesty for members of the communist terrorist groups (CTGs) who have surrendered, or want to surrender, to the government, in order to promote genuine national reconciliation and facilitate their re-integration to society.
Collectively and individually, the CTGs refer to the members and officials of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF/NDFP).
The move for amnesty involving the CTG was among the consensus arrived at by the NTF-ELCAC and bared to the public during a press conference right after their first ‘Execom’ (executive committee) meeting last Friday, July 15, 2022, chaired by new National Security Adviser (NSA) Secretary Clarita Carlos.
Created under Executive Order (EO) 70 series of December 4, 2018 by President Rodrigo Duterte as chairman and the NSA as co-chair, the entire NTF-ELCAC Execom is composed of the secretaries of the following:
Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG); Department of Justice (DOJ); Department of National Defense (DND); Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH); Department of Budget and Management (DBM); Department of Finance (DOF); Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR); Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD); Department of Education (DepEd); and, the Presidential Communications and Operations Office (PCOO), now the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS).
Additional members of the Execom consist of:
The Director General, National Economic Development Authority (NEDA); National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA); Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA); Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP); Presidential Adviser on Indigenous Peoples’ Concerns and the chairperson, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP); Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP); Director General, Philippine National Police; and, two representatives from the private sector.
During the press conference, former AFP chief of staff and now DND ‘OIC’ (officer-in-charge) Jose Faustino Jr., again debunked the effort by a ‘reporter’ of Rappler, an online news site already ordered shuttered down by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to raise the bogey of ‘red-tagging,’ stressing that it is never the policy of the task force and the government to ‘red-tag’ anyone.
Faustino was clearly annoyed by the effort of Rappler to divert the purpose of the press conference back to the narrative of the CPP claiming the government is resorting to ‘red-tagging’ to stifle legitimate forms of dissent and justify the arrest of protesters.
Another former AFP chief and current OPAPP secretary, Carlito Galvez, for his part, said the task force is also not inclined for the government to enter into another round of peace talks at the national level, as proposed by CPP founder, Jose Maria Sison.
Sison, who is included in the terrorist list of the United States, the European Union and other Western countries, has batted for the continuation of the peace talks after the CPP’s presidential candidate, Vice President Leni Robredo, was trashed by PBBM at the polls during the presidential election last May 9, 2022.
Instead, Galvez said the government would continue with peace talks with CTG members at the local level, noting further that the government has gained nothing from its past peace talks with the CPP thru the NDFP and which the CTGs merely used to regroup and strengthen its ranks in the interim.
Carlos, for her part, said they would seek ‘guidance’ from PBBM on how to exactly move forward with the propose amnesty for CTG members and officials, although the mechanism for its implementation is already in place.
Last February 05, 2021, President Duterte signed EO 125, creating the National Amnesty Commission (NAC) composed of 7 members of which the chairman and two members are to be appointed by the Chief Executive and secretaries of DOJ, DND, DILG and the OPAPP as ex-officio members. The OPAPP is also tasked to provide the Secretariat for the NCA.
The NCA is tasked not only to process the amnesty application of the CTGs but other armed groups as well with the issuance by President Duterte on the same date of Proclamations 1090 (for the members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front), 1091 (for the members of the Moro National Liberation Front), 1092 (for the members of the breakaway factions of the CPP-JPA) and, 1093 (for the members of the CTGs).
The following month, March 25, 2021, the House of Representatives issued several resolutions (Resolutions 12, 13, 14 and 15, respectively) supporting the above presidential proclamations.
Significantly, only the members of the Makabayan Bloc, the legal front of the CPP in Congress, opposed the resolution (Resolution 15) supporting the granting of amnesty to the CTGs but was voted down by the other members of the joint committees on justice, national defense and security (see also Pinoy Exposé, April 5, 2021).
Aside from recommending amnesty for the CTGs, the first Execom of the NTF-ELCAC also reaffirmed the ‘whole-of-nation/whole-of government’ strategy in defeating communist terrorism.
LPP ‘suggests’ for Secretary Carlos to resign
Meanwhile, the League of Parents of the Philippines (LPP), ‘suggested’ for Carlos to resign as national security adviser for parroting the line of the CPP that the government is resorting to red-tagging its critics, particularly personalities and groups closely identified with the CTGs.
In an interview by SMNI News Channel last July 14, 2022, Arlene Escalante, LPP president and spokesperson, said they cannot hide their “irritation” and disappointment over the statements of Carlos and her new National Security Council (NSC) undersecretary, Rommel Banloi, over the statements in support of the CPP narrative on red-tagging.
Both officials are also of the belief that the government cannot do anything to prevent the CPP from continuously turning the country’s school campuses as recruitment centers for the NPA.
“Ma’m Carlos, I love you po, pero kung sa tingin ninyo po ay wala nang pag-asa, wala na tayong magagawa (to prevent CPP recruitments), then you are not qualified to be there (at the NSC),” Escalante said.
The LPP is among the parents’ groups in the country active in exposing the lies and deceptions of the CPP and its urban operatives thru the NDFP that resulted to the recruitment of thousands of students into its terrorist fold and which also resulted to broken homes, broken future and at worst, death to most of them during encounter with the government troops.
The position of Carlos and Banloi on red-tagging and CPP recruitment has also drawn the ire of known personalities like the Rev. Pastor Quibuloy branding Banloi as “useless” (inutil) and The Manila Times columnist, Rigoberto Tiglao, a former ranking official of the CPP, describing the call by the new NSC leadership to stop exposing CPP front groups and personalities as “nuts.”