📷AlterMidya
Three weeks before the May 12, mid-term elections, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC is ramping up its campaign against progressive partylists and the Makabayan Coalition senatorial slate and mocking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to enforce its prohibition of red-tagging, which the Supreme Court (SC) ruled as illegal and a threat to the lives of Filipinos.
NTF-ELCAC, which was created by Executive Order No. 70 by the unlamented ex-president Rodrigo Duterte in 2018, has not only been busy red-tagging campaigners for partylists in Northern Luzon but also sending miniature coffins to peasant leaders in Cebu and soldiers snatched at least one campaigner, University of the Philippines -Manila (UP Manila) alumna and Kabataan partylist member Andy Magno on Easter, April 20. NTF-ELCAC has been spreading propaganda leaflets against Gabriela and the Makabayan Coalition in Cagayan Valley. While Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia denounced the NTF-ELCAC for warning and threatening him for not going hard against progressive partylists in a very rude letter, Garcia never ordered the NTF-ELCAC to stop its ultra-electoral interference.
He should have asked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to sign an executive order abolishing NTF-ELCAC, which operates against distinct partylists and candidates in violation of the prohibition against meddling by government entities in the electoral process. Its actions can only be described as electoral interference since they are all designed to attack progressive partylists and the Makabayan Coalition while pushing aspirants aligned with both the Duterte and Marcos Jr. camps. Without Duterte’s dubious EO 70, the NTF-ELCAC should never have existed despite the instigation of the United States, which has promoted its US Counterinsurgency (COIN) Guide as the playbook for campaign of encirclement and suppression. Garcia used to be Marcos Jr.’s counsel in his election cases since 2016.
This NTF-ELCAC is a well-oiled machinery that eats up billions of pesos of the government’s annual budget just to spread intrigue, dangle funds to local government units (LGUs) for special counter insurgency projects like repair of roads and canals and organizing the “surrenders” of farmers, fishermen and children for being sympathizers of the New People’s Army (NPA), the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP.) This agency has been the sideline of retired soldiers, officers and cops who are themselves bolstered by renegades who are out to make a fast buck from the unaudited cash, like the doleouts for favored partylists of the Marcos Jr. administration. In short, it is a cash cow that cannot be justified once it is subjected to a cost-benefit analysis by the Commission on Audit (COA.)
After gloating that the slew of cases filed against non-government organizations, rural missionaries and groups supporting indigenous communities and their school networks were the reasons why the Philippines exited from the “gray list” of countries with weak controls against terror financing, NTF-ELCAC again reared its ugly head by acting as the local Gestapo by accusing at least six activists of “terrorism financing.” Tanggol Magsasaka denounced the charges, accusing state agents of trying to use the Terrorism Financing and Suppression Act of 2012, also known as Republic Act No. 10168, to harass, jail and persecute dissenters. Charged last January 10 were Jackie Valencia, former Karapatan National Council member; Isabelo Adviento, former regional coordinator and former nominee of Anakpawis Partylist, Cita Managuelod, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-Isabela coordinator, Agnes Mesina, Makabayan-Cagayan Valley regional coordinator, Walter Villegas, Kabataan Partylist Regional Coordinator, and Deo Montesclaros, environmental activist and journalist.
In Cebu, KMP condemned the death threats against farmer leaders Susan Alcos and Dominador Malicay of KMP Cebu and demanded that the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and Comelec immediately investigate the threats and arrest the state agents involved. On April 15, Holy Tuesday, a parcel was delivered by J&T Express at the residence of Alcos, 46, and Malicay, 59, in Barangay Poblacion, Aloguinsan, Cebu. When the couple opened the package, they found a small coffin. Inside, they their photographs and strips of paper printed with their names and “rest in peace” written in bold letters. “This is a clear-cut case of political persecution meant to instill fear among people’s organizations and grassroots movements,” said Ronnie Manalo, Tanggol Magsasaka spokesperson and KMP secretary general.
Former Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao argued the charges are not isolated legal actions but legal weapons wielded to dismantle grassroots resistance and electoral opposition. “The people’s right to organize and speak truth is under attack,” he added. No less than 166 individuals have been charged or designated as “terrorists” under Republic Act No. 11479 (RA 11479) or the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 and RA 10168. Moreover, 17 NGOs engaged in community development and humanitarian work have had their bank accounts frozen under ATA and RA 10168. “This is state repression in full swing,” Casilao stressed.
In 2024, Mesina and Villegas were also charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives—non-bailable charges backed up by manufactured evidence. Arrest warrants have reportedly been issued against them, while Mesina faces additional charges under ATA of 2020. Adviento, acquitted in April 2024 of similar trumped-up charges, is being targeted anew. Tanggol Magsasaka and KMP condemned the ongoing red-tagging and vilification campaign against Makabayan senatorial candidates and progressive partylist groups across Cagayan Valley provinces, calling it part of a broader, fascist scheme to discredit and disable opposition voices during the electoral season. (DIEGO MORRA)
