The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has dismissed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) as a “failed project,” with its spokesperson suggesting that the government body should dismantle itself if it truly believes the CPP and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), are no longer a political force.
Marco Valbuena, chief information officer of the CPP, issued the statement following the NTF-Elcac’s remarks coinciding with the CPP’s 57th anniversary.
The task force had described the CPP-NPA as a “sunken organization” and “a band of isolated bandits,” while asserting that the group had nothing to celebrate.
Valbuena countered that the NTF-Elcac’s continued existence was itself proof of failure.
“If the NTF-Elcac really wants to prove that the CPP is no longer a political force, the best demonstration of its achievement would be to self-dismantle and call it a day,” he said.
He criticized the task force for lobbying for more than ₱8 billion in infrastructure funds despite calls from church groups, human rights advocates, youth organizations, and media sectors for its dissolution.
The CPP spokesperson also rejected the task force’s claims of “tangible improvements in people’s lives,” citing persistent issues such as joblessness, landlessness, low wages, rising costs of living, and inadequate social services.
He argued that these realities reflected growing disenchantment with the Marcos administration.
Valbuena further accused the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) of continuing suppression campaigns in rural communities, despite government assertions that guerrilla fronts had been dismantled.
He noted that majority of AFP battalions remain deployed in peasant villages and pointed to plans to enlist tens of thousands of paramilitary forces under the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU).
The CPP statement also linked the country’s crisis conditions to corruption, foreign corporate exploitation, environmental destruction, and what it described as the Marcos government’s “collusion with the US” in regional military affairs.
According to Valbuena, these conditions provide fertile ground for the CPP to advance its national democratic struggle and strengthen revolutionary organizations under the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Despite setbacks in recent years, Valbuena maintained that the CPP, NPA, and allied groups have “steadily regained ground” and are positioned to make “bigger strides” in the coming years.
He urged the public to read the CPP Central Committee’s anniversary statement, which he said “tears apart the web of lies” propagated by the NTF-Elcac. (RRN)
