The Philippine UPR Watch, a network of faith-based and human rights organizations engaging with the UN Human Rights Council, said that the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) official statement on the report of Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion Irene Khan is replete with lies.
“The NTF-ELCAC’s convoluted concept of “peace and development” means that everything it does – from red-tagging to threats, from abductions and enforced disappearances and fake surrenders, to killings and bombings – should be accepted as long as it wipes out any communist, dissenter, or social change advocate. The forest is about a democracy where rights and freedoms are respected, without the climate of fear and impunity, and it is precisely this forest that the NTF ELCAC tries to burn down through its fascist approach and means,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.
“The Marcos administration’s NTF-ELCAC and its government organised groups and paid hacks are the only ones claiming that what it does is “truth-telling.” Stories from the ground belie their twisted narratives. Farmers and rural poor suffer from fake surrenders, their lives and livelihoods disrupted by so-called NTF-ELCAC’s projects,” Palabay added.
Palabay said, “Whole communities of peasants, indigenous people, workers, migrants, along with journalists, rights advocates, development workers, faith leaders, activists, lawyers, international experts like Ms Khan and practically all UN human rights independent mechanisms have debunked each and every lie this notorious task force has peddled.”
Karapatan documented 563 incidents of fake surrenders since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed the presidency. Palabay said most of the victims were deceived into queuing for aid, but once there, they found themselves joining “surrender ceremonies” where they were misrepresented as “armed rebels returning to the folds of the law.
“‘Khan did not make these findings out of thin air but from rigorous consultations with Philippine government officials, including state security forces, and several civil society organizations. The Special Rapporteur was able to sift through the lies,” Josalee Deinla, secretary general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said.
Deinla pointed out that the Supreme Court itself, in a decision in 2024, acknowledged that red-tagging exists, and declared that such practice endangers the life, liberty and security of the victims.
Bishop Joseph Agpaoa, acting general secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), said that NTF-ELCAC’s actions are contrary to peace building. “Refusing to address the root causes of the armed conflict is not the way to peace,” Bishop Agpaoa said. “Repressing critical voices will only foment further tension and unrest.”
The Philippine UPR Watch said that Khan’s final report “puts the obligation to abide by international human rights conventions squarely on Marcos, who heads the NTF-ECAC.”
“His adamant refusal to abolish it shows his imprimatur for every violation on human rights and international humanitarian law that this task force commits,” the Philippine UPR Watch said. #
