KARAPATAN slammed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for his persistent refusal to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), saying he was “encouraged by the reports.”
KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay exclaimed, “Reports? Does he mean reports that there were 119 extrajudicial killings, 76 frustrated extrajudicial killings, 14 enforced disappearances, 762 political prisoners and 3,706,431 cases of threats, harassment and intimidation as of the end of 2024?”
The NTF-ELCAC, notorious for its role in red-tagging activists and other perceived dissenters, has been instrumental in profiling, threatening and harassing its targets and setting them up for more serious human rights violations. No less than the Supreme Court has ruled that red-tagging constitutes a threat to a person’s life, liberty and security.
Calls have been mounting for the abolition of the red-tagging agency, including from special rapporteurs of the United Nations. Despite the NTF-ELCAC’s notoriety, however, Marcos Jr. has adamantly refused to do away with this monstrosity created during the Duterte regime.
Worse, Marcos Jr. has announced that his regime plans to ask for more funds for the NTF-ELCAC in the next budgetary season.
“KARAPATAN and other human rights defenders will not only block Marcos Jr.’s attempts to further provide funds and resources to the NTF-ELCAC. We will step up our campaign to have it abolished and consigned to the dustbins as a filthy relic of the Marcos Jr. and Duterte regimes,” concluded Palabay.