Human rights advocates slammed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for its latest tirade against the recently concluded International Solidarity Mission (ISM) on climate justice and militarism in peasant and indigenous communities, denouncing its statements as “desperate moves to suppress truth and sabotage the people’s pursuit of justice.”
“International solidarity missions are spaces where the truth about the monstrosity of state terror is unearthed and spoken,” KARAPATAN Secretary General Cristina Palabay said. “They give victims of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law the chance to speak, and they bring their demands for justice to be heard.”
The ISM, organized by Peoples’ Rising for Climate Justice (PRCJ) and partner groups including KARAPATAN, investigated the impacts of destructive corporate and government projects, corruption, and militarization in indigenous and farming communities across Southern Tagalog, Leyte, and Negros Occidental. Learning tours and solidarity activities were simultaneously held in these areas on October 11 to 15, 2025.
According to Palabay, the NTF-ELCAC’s stance once again showed that it is intolerant of people-to-people learning and solidarity. “The task force exists only as a machinery for red-tagging and harassment in communities, and as a scheming agency to shield the Marcos Jr. government from accountability for imposing de facto martial law,” she said.
“What is even more deplorable is that state forces and the NTF-ELCAC harassed all ISM activities in different regions — using public funds to silence the people themselves,” Palabay added.
Palabay also described the NTF-ELCAC’s statement as a “veiled threat” aimed at intimidating and deterring peoples of other countries from expressing solidarity with farmers, indigenous peoples, and Filipinos who have long sought justice but have only been met with government inaction and fascist repression. “Such posturing only reveals their hostility to truth and solidarity. It reeks of desperation,” she said.
Solidarity missions have been conducted in the Philippines since the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, organized by international organizations and members of the international community. Amnesty International, for instance, conducted two missions during Marcos Sr.’s rule, in 1975 and 1981.
“Through these missions, the world learned of the widespread torture, political imprisonment, and other grave abuses that exposed the cruelty of the Marcos dictatorship,” Palabay said. “For NTF-ELCAC to dismiss ISMs as ‘one-sided’ is laughable, when the narratives of the military and its paid assets have long dominated public discourse using public funds. ISMs exist precisely to amplify the testimonies of farmers, workers, indigenous peoples, and grassroots communities. These are the voices the government desperately wants to silence.”
Palabay emphasized that the participation of international delegates is both legitimate and necessary. “International solidarity is a fundamental right, and the concern of international observers reflects a global commitment to people’s rights. That the Marcos Jr. government, like Duterte before it, reacts with hostility only exposes its deep aversion to scrutiny and accountability. The government is not being discredited by international missions — it is being unmasked by its own grave violations, militarization, political persecution, and systematic attacks on the people.”
KARAPATAN added that by resorting once more to red-tagging, NTF-ELCAC clings to the same tired, shallow script it has used for years. These accusations cannot erase the lived realities of communities facing harassment, forced evacuations, bombings, illegal arrests, political imprisonment, and extrajudicial killings.
“NTF-ELCAC’s pronouncements are nothing but desperate attempts to cover up the truth,” Palabay concluded. “Its rants only betray its dread of being unmasked, its panic at accountability, and its desperation to hide the truth. No amount of distortion will silence the people’s voices or erase the solidarity they continue to inspire across the world.”