National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Tuesday lambasted Left-leaning lawmakers and organizations who want the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) to be dismantled after one of its officials was accused of red-tagging.
“In the strongest terms, I denounce the personalities that claim to be ‘progressive’ and are calling for the dismantling of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict,” Esperon, who also serves as the vice chairman of the anti-communist task force, said in a statement.
Aside from this, Esperon also hit back at the task force’s critics who want to defund the Barangay Development Program (BDP), a counter-insurgency plan which aims to deliver various government programs in conflict-afflicted and geographically isolated areas that are freed from the influence of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
Calls for the dismantling of the NTF-ELCAC originated from Bayan Muna Partylist Reps. Carlos Zarate and Ferdinand Gaite last week.
They want the anti-communist task force to be dissolved after one of its spokespersons, Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr., was embroiled in a red-tagging controversy involving some celebrities.
“We have here a task force that is only spreading lies, disinformation, and fake news that would be funded by around P19 billion of taxpayers’ money that could have been allocated to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, give aid to those left jobless by the pandemic, and help our agriculture,” said Zarate.
“Why waste hard-earned money on this fake news agency and just dismantle it?” he added.
But Esperon rebutted Zarate and Gaite as he explained that the NTF-ELCAC follows a two-track strategic framework to accomplish their mission of eradicating communist insurgency.
He said the first track focuses on the political, economic, and socio-cultural impact of NPA rebellion to address the primary issues and root causes of insurgency and the development of strong institutions in the communities.
He said part of the NTF-ELCAC’s proposed P19-billion fund for 2021 will be used to build and provide farm-to-market roads, school buildings, water and sanitation system, national greening program, health stations, electrification, crops, livestock and fisheries, interconnectivity, and livelihood and skills trainings in 822 NPA-cleared barangays under the Barangay Development Program.
On the other hand, he said that the second track tackles peace engagement, law enforcement, and military tactics to invite communist rebels to return to the fold of the law, delegitimize insurgents, and conduct sustained military operations against the CPP-NPA.
“We, in the NTF-ELCAC, do not stand in the way of advocacies for the rights of vulnerable sectors. In fact, these are exactly what we want for our society — the opportunity for women to be heard, to protect our children from armed conflict, to provide sustainable development solutions to poverty and the health crisis,” Esperon emphasized.
“This BDP belies the accusation of Congressman Zarate that the task force is only for ‘spreading lies, disinformation, and fake news’ that would be funded with P19 billion. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic, in fact, magnifies the urgency of delivering these initiatives to the communities,” he said.
The controversy stemmed from Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade’s warning to actress Liza Soberano to distance herself from Gabriela Women’s Party, a progressive group advocating for women’s rights.
Soberano participated in an online forum organized by the Gabriela’s youth sector, which was linked by Parlade to the CPP-NPA. The group has denied the military general’s allegation, although many former Gabriela youth members had been killed in encounters, fighting on the side of the NPA rebels.
Parlade also issued the same warning to Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, while accusing actress Angel Locsin and her sister, Angela “Ella” Colmenares, and their uncle, former Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares, of ties to the underground movement. They all denied these claims, even as General Parlade, commander of the AFP Southern Luzon Command, cited evidence that Ella had joined the NPA on Polillo Island, Quezon and returned only to legal life when she gave birth.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had cautioned Parlade from accusing any individual of ties to communist groups unless he has a solid evidence.
Meanwhile, Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, founding chairman of the CPP, criticized Parlade and Lorenzana for supposedly branding activists and advocates as “terrorists.”
“In their excessive zeal to witch hunt and red-tag legal democratic organizations and personalities, Lorenzana and Parlade exposed their ignorance of the NDFP [National Democratic Front of the Philippines] table of organizations,” Sison said.
Sison said Parlade, Lorenzana, and the rest of the NTF-ELCAC are bent on using the rule of “guilt by association” under the “catch-all pretext of anti-terrorism” to “incriminate any person in any kind of criminal offense while doing away with the principle of due process.”