INTENSIFIED STATE TERRORISM AGAINST THE FILIPINO PEOPLE UNDER MARCOS JR.
Militarization reared its ugly head in the second quarter of 2025, especially in rural areas, engendering numerous violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL). Even as there was virtual martial rule in the vast countryside, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. tried to project an image of “democracy in action” through automated elections. However, the polls’ results preordained through rigged electoral counting machines, merely reinforced the country’s landlord- and comprador- dominated politics and guaranteed the perpetuation of fascist policies.
A week before the May 11 elections, the Marcos Jr. regime released its National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) 2025-2028, its blueprint for intensified state terrorism, exploitation and oppression. The NAP-UPD strengthens the notorious National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), naming it as the leading government body in enforcing the counter-insurgency action plan.
The NAP-UPD’s premise is the looming defeat of the armed rebellion in the countryside led by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). The NAP-UPD is ostensibly designed to inflict the “final blow” on the CPP-NPA by escalating the persecution of what the Marcos Jr. regime views as the legal infrastructure of the armed revolution. These comprise the so-called Communist Terrorist Group Front Organizations (CTGFO) which include people’s organizations, human rights defenders, grassroots- oriented development organizations and progressive partylist groups.
To be targeted are non-governmental organizations (NGO) receiving grants, which will be subject to even more intense scrutiny. NGOs targeted for persecution will be slapped with trumped-up financing terrorism charges. The NTF-ELCAC will also be intensifying its attacks on the people’s movement, on academic freedom, freedom of expression and freedom of association on the pretext of stemming recruitment to the NPA. Alarmingly, a major crackdown on progressive candidates and partylist groups
is likewise in the offing, with the NAP-UPD dismissing their advocacy of pro-people politics as a rebranding of insurgency, a means of reviving what they claim to be a moribund armed resistance.