Professors, researchers, university administrators and education professionals from leading universities nationwide on Saturday, Nov. 13, commended the Senate for defunding the National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
The Academics Unite for Democracy and Human Rights (ADHR), in a statement, lauded the Senate Finance Committee for slashing the budget of the NTF-ELCAC from P28 billion to P4 billion.
“We commend our Senators for defunding the NTF-ELCAC,” said Michael Pante, one of ADHR’s convenors.
“Public funds are better spent on education and the pandemic response rather than on Duterte’s deadly crackdown on activists and assaults on academic freedom,” he added.
Pante, a history professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, said that rather than “wasting” billions of taxpayers' money for the NTF-ELCAC, the public funds should be used for education such as “acquiring more library books for state universities.”
ADHR is the initiator of the “Aswang sa Aklatan” online repository of books which are allegedly “under attack” by the Duterte government.
During the “Hugpungan: 1st PUP Center for Philippine Studies Conference” held on Oct. 20, Pante delivered a plenary speech entitled “Araling Pilipino Laban sa Pagdidisiplinang Inter-Agency at Whole-of-Nation” that critiqued the NTF-ELCAC.
“By repressing all forms of dissent to the extent of purging books from libraries, the Duterte administration is molding a generation of youth that will be ignorant of history and the social basis of rebellions,” Pante said. “It’s about time this madness is put to an end,” he added.
Step in the ‘right direction’
Meanwhile, the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND-UP), a militant organization of faculty and academic workers in UP, also noted that defunding the NTF-ELCAC is a “step in the right direction” towards the complete abolition of the agency.
“We have to stop the NTF-ELCAC from fomenting anti-communist hysteria and fanaticism that treats even the slightest criticism of Duterte’s incompetent and repressive rule or the exercise of any form of independent thinking as subversive,” Dr. Gerry Lanuza, CONTEND-UP Chairperson and UP Diliman faculty.
Lanuza alleged that “red-tagging perpetrated by the agency has fed into extrajudicial killings, harassment, threats, intimidation, and arbitrary arrests” of activists and civilians alike.
“We say prioritize education, healthcare, and the pandemic response,” Lanuza said. “Abolish the NTF-ELCAC,” he added.