Comelec slams NTF-ELCAC

📷Comelec Chairman George Garcia

Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia is finally standing his ground against red-tagging after an unnamed government agency officially warned him not to implement a policy against harassment and disinformation normally pursued by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which the unlamented ex-president Rodrigo Duterte created by virtue of Executive Order No. 70 in 2018.

The normally composed Garcia accused another agency on Feb. 20 of red-tagging the Comelec after the poll body issued a new policy prohibiting discriminatory and harassment acts during the campaign period for the May 2025 elections, which is required to put some sanity into the campaign and prevent the likes of NTF-ELCAC in red-tagging party lists, senatorial candidates and local aspirants consistent with its national propaganda drive to see “terrorists” in every nook and cranny. Garcia cut his teeth at the Comelec as part of the staff of the late Commissioner Julio F. Desamito, who became a lawyer and specialized in election law.

Its operatives have already festooned streamers and pasted posters accusing the Makabayan Coalition, Gabriela, Kabataan, Bayan Muna, and other organizations of being “unarmed guerrillas” (a contradiction in terms) and as “terrorists” engaged in electoral campaigns. The infuriated Garcia said the agency warned Comelec against issuing the new policy. “When we had a draft of the guidelines, maybe they got wind of it. They sent us a warning. I am using the word ‘warning’ based on the wordings in the letter,” Garcia added. “When we were reading the letter, we felt like we are the ones being red-tagged. We felt offended by the communication that we received from an agency of the government.”

Garcia maintained there is nothing wrong with implementing a policy based on a ruling of the Supreme Court (SC), which dismissed a case against a local politician who had been hounded by the NTF-ELCAC and its surrogates and accused of being a leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) without any evidence. The Comelec chief reiterated that a decision of the High Court is part of the law of the land that an agency created by a mere executive order cannot overturn. Analysts maintained that it is only NTF-ELCAC which pursues a “whole-of-nation” approach in its battle against the revolutionary movement, with local government units (LGUs) and private sector groups like the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) withdrawing from the counterinsurgency task force.

While Garcia did not say explicitly that NTF-ELCAC was behind the threat against Comelec, observers said it is only that agency that has been going around the country to cajole and recruit various organizations to show it has a massive number of warm bodies against “terrorists.” NTF-ELCAC enjoys billions of pesos to spread around, if, indeed, it spreads them, while other agencies have to suffer huge budget cuts. Apart from the threat, the agency insisted the Comelec was wrong to implement the High Court decision. “The agency told us that our interpretation is wrong. But that is the decision of the Supreme Court,” an exasperated Garcia stressed.

Garcia gave hints as to the agency’s identity. “We included in the guidelines the red tagging and this may not be following the wishes of the government agency that is in charge of this,” he argued. The Comelec chairman advised the agency to be careful in sending threats and warnings against the commission. “Don’t ever challenge the power of the Commission, especially this election. Our mandate is provided under the Constitution. We weren’t simply created by an executive order,” he declared. The anti-discrimination policy is contained in Comelec Resolution No. 11116, which provides the guidelines on anti-discrimination and fair campaigning for the May 2025 midterm elections.

Under the resolution, the Comelec said all election-related cases of intimidation and harassment shall be considered as election offenses subject to its sanctions. “During the election period, any person who, directly or indirectly, commit acts of bullying based on HIV status, coercion, discrimination against women, discrimination against PWDs on the use of public accommodations, gender-based harassment, labeling, public ridicule against PWDs, vilification of PWDs, violation of an anti-discrimination ordinance, and/or violation of rights to religious, cultural sites, and ceremonies shall be liable for an election offense,” the resolution read. “These acts may be committed in person, through radio and/or television, newspaper, publication, internet, and other similar medium,” it added. Under the guidelines, “labeling” refers to the act of categorizing, classifying, labeling, branding, associating, naming, and accusing groups and/or organizations as ‘vocal dissenters’ and activists or subversive group sympathizers or terrorists, or belonging to a criminal group/syndicate without evidence, in connection with or in relation to any election-related activity.”

Gender-based harassment, meanwhile, refers to any “unwanted and uninvited sexual actions or remarks,” such as unwanted sexual, transphobic, homophobic, and sexist remarks, against any person regardless of the motive, whether in-person or online, broadcast or print, for any election-related activity. The Commission defined public ridicule against PWDs as an “act of making fun or contemptuous imitating or making mockery of persons with disability whether in writing, or in words, or in action due to their impairment/s.” (DIEGO MORRA)