KARAPATAN: No funds for war machine NTF-ELCAC

National Security Adviser Eduardo Año is a fine one to talk as he lobbies for billions of pesos more for the warmonger National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and brands their enemies as “peace spoilers.”

The fact is that with the NTF-ELCAC and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in a mad scramble to fulfill their commander in chief’s deadline to crush the New People’s Army by the end of this year, vast areas of the countryside are being turned into war zones with frequent aerial and artillery strikes, economic blockades, hamletting and forced evacuations that have been wreaking havoc on the civilian population and civilian property and infrastructure.

It is the NTF-ELCAC that has had an abominable record of spoiling peace, committing human rights violations as well as violations of international humanitarian law in the course of the counter-insurgency war. It purposely blurs distinctions between civilians and combatants and deliberately red-tags and targets non-combatants in its so-called whole of nation approach. The billions that the NTF-ELCAC had already received were no doubt used in this despicable manner, starkly outlining the fascist nature of the Marcos Jr. regime.

The NTF-ELCAC does not deserve a single centavo from government coffers. In fact, it does not deserve to exist.

No funds for this notorious war machine! Abolish the NTF-ELCAC!