NTF-ELCAC, CHR clashes anew over ‘red tagging’

THE National Task Force Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) lashed at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for taking the “propaganda line” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its allied front organizations “that have consistently attacked the Philippine government and the NTF-ELCAC.”

Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, of the task force’s Legal Cooperation Cluster, particularly denounced the CHR’s adoption of the ‘red-tagging’ defense used by CPP fronts to downplay their active involvement in the armed violence being espoused by the CPP to bring down the government.

“The CHR must know that red-tagging is a legally non-existent term. Jurisprudence has established that there is no such thing as red-tagging. Hence, something non-existent cannot violate any right,” Gonzales stressed.

The official was referring to the statement released on May 13, 2023 by the CHR where it assailed the Philippine National Police (PNP) for assisting the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) in a seminar it conducted for students of the Carlos L. Albert High School last May 2, 2023. The event was to warn about the recruitment activities of the CPP’s armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), thru their various front organizations in the youth sector.

The complaint was filed by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), a CPP front organization.

“As the country’s independent national human rights institution, CHR cannot stand idly by amid the persistent red-tagging of students, educators, and civil organizations in the country.

“We have stressed, time and again, that red-tagging is a serious violation of human rights, and can lead to worse forms of violence such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings,” the CHR said.

It added it is investigating the incident, claiming the presence of “armed policemen” in the school’s campus is a violation of a circular from the Department of Education (DepEd) declaring schools as ‘zones of peace.’

But according to Gonzales, the CHR is “patently wrong” when it claimed that there is a correlation with the CPP-created term of red-tagging to purported enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

“These are propaganda lines peddled by the CPP-NDF-NPA and by their allied front organizations,” Gonzales pointed out.

“To label and to brand and to tell our youth and our students that a particular group is a terrorist front organization is not a crime,” he added.

He also suggested that the CHR is now facing an “identity crisis” that the NTF-ELCAC finds worrisome.

“What worries us is the fact that the CHR no longer has that objectivity and that vigilance to protect the rights of the Filipino people.

“This most recent statement by the CHR sends a message that the CHR needs to be educated on the problem of the communist insurgency and the infiltration of the various sectors in Philippine society,” Gonzales said.

VP Sara as NTF-ELCAC co-chair welcomed

Meanwhile the country’s national security establishment has welcomed the appointment of Vice President Sara Duterte as “co-chair” of the NTF-ELCAC, along with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The confirmation was made during a press conference last May 10, 2023 by National Security Adviser Eduardo M. Año.

“The NTF-ELCAC Execom has approved the designation of Vice President Sara Duterte as co-vice chairperson of the Task Force. Her unstinting commitment in the cause of NTF-ELCAC will undoubtedly be very valuable to the Task Force and we thank her for accepting the challenge,” said Año, who is the vice chair of the task force.

The NTF-ELCAC was created by the Vice President’s father, Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte on December 4, 2018 thru the issuance of Executive Order (EO) 70.

The creation of the task force came after the government realized the futility of holding peace talks with the CPP and adopts the ‘whole of nation, whole of government’ strategy to finally put an end to the more than 50 years of communist terrorism in the country.

“With her as the co-vice chairperson of the NTF-ELCAC, she will be a great help to supervise not only the 12 clusters but also the designated cabinet officers to supervise regional peace and development and peace development in the different regions,” Año added.