No less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has assured the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that it “will stay” despite calls made by certain groups for its abolition, according to a government official.

The NTF-ELCAC, founded on Dec. 4, 2018, celebrated its sixth anniversary on Friday, Dec. 6, with a commitment that it will continue to perform its mandate to eradicate insurgency and foster lasting peace in the country.

“The NTF-ELCAC is the worst nightmare of the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front). That is why, as you have mentioned, at every opportunity, they would like to have it abolished,” said Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., executive director of NTF-ELCAC. 

“But I would like to inform the public, we were assured by no less than the chairman, His Excellency President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr., that it will stay because it provides the genuine service to the Filipino people, particularly those who are most vulnerable to the deception of the CPP-NPA-NDF,” he said.

When it was established in 2018, the NTF-ELCAC had a gargantuan task of dismantling 89 active guerilla fronts of the CPP-NPA-NDF with tens of thousands of fighters.

Six years later, Torres said there are zero active guerilla front and the anti-Red task force only had to deal with four “weakened” guerilla fronts with 1,111 fighters: the weakened Guerilla Front North Abra and weakened Guerilla Front Baggas both in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR); the Komiteng Larangan Gerilya (KLG) 1 in the Bicol Region (Region 5); and weakened Guerilla Central Front in Negros Occidental. 

A weakened front means that its leader has already been neutralized but its members can still mount small and isolated attacks.

Three of the weakened fronts are about to be declared "dismantled", leaving only one weakened front as the year-end approaches.

The NTF-ELCAC earlier set a goal of totally eliminating all the guerilla fronts and ending the insurgency problem by the end of 2024.

“We believe that lasting peace is the price of eternal vigilance. Hence, we have to be always be vigilant and not to be complacent even though we are confronting zero active guerrilla front,” Torres said.

Calls for the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC have been made by certain groups and personalities as it has been notoriously linked to red-tagging critics of the government, an allegation denied by the task force.

Ombudsman complaint

Among those calling for the dismantling of NTF-ELCAC were environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano, who claimed that they were abducted by state forces in Bataan last year.

The two activists filed a complaint against National Security Council (NSC) Asst. Director General Jonathan Malaya, members of the Philippine Army (PA), the NTF-ELCAC, and the Philippine National Police (PNP) before the Office of the Ombudsman last Thursday for violation of the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, the Anti-Torture Act of 2009, as well as grave coercion under the Revised Penal Code.

They also filed administrative charges for grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority, and oppression and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

But Malaya said this reflects “a clear act of desperation and forum shopping” after the Court of Appeals dismissed with finality the activists’ petitions for Writs of Amparo and Habeas Data, which are formal written orders that protect constitutional rights and address the issue of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.

The NSC official noted that the Court of Appeals has dismissed with finality the motion for reconsideration filed by Castro and Tamano on Oct. 29, 2024. The decision reaffirmed the court’s Aug. 2, 2024 ruling that denied the petitioners' claims that they were abducted by state forces.

In a vote of 5-0, Malaya said the Former Special Eight Division of the Court of Appeals ruled that their claims relied on mere assumptions and noted that the transition from unidentified abductors to military complicity was lacking proof or evidence.

“Since their lies cannot find succor with the Courts, they now moved to the Office of the Ombudsman in a desperate attempt to pin us down without solid evidence. Such is the modus operandi of these groups,” said Malaya.

He said that he and the NTF-ELCAC are ready to face the new charges before the Office of the Ombudsman. 

“We have full confidence in the integrity and fairness of the Ombudsman. We are confident that truth and justice will prevail in the end,” he said.