Political prisoners’ support group KAPATID on Friday called for the total defunding and abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) as it warned that the government body continues to enable red-tagging and other human rights violations.
The call was made on August 21, the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., whom KAPATID cited as a historic example of the deadly consequences of political persecution and state repression.
KAPATID said recent NTF-ELCAC statements about its meeting with the Philippine representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) appeared intended to improve the task force’s image and support calls for a bigger budget.
The group said such engagements with the OHCHR should not be interpreted as an endorsement of the NTF-ELCAC or used to lend credibility to its human rights record.
KAPATID also pointed to recommendations from United Nations experts calling for the abolition of the task force by citing recommendations made by UN Special Rapporteurs Irene Khan on freedom of opinion and expression in 2024 and Ian Fry on human rights and climate change in 2023.
“The practice of labeling political opponents as subversives is a classic state weapon of repression,” KAPATID said.
It recalled that Aquino had been red-tagged, arrested and jailed on subversion charges under the administration of the late Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and accused of links to the New People’s Army before being sentenced to death by a military tribunal.
“Today, the state mechanism has changed its name to the NTF-ELCAC but the objective remains identical: to criminalize dissent, justify political imprisonment, and neutralize critics,” the group said.
KAPATID also criticized the task force’s use of the term “spy-tagging,” saying it could distract from the documented consequences of red-tagging, including intimidation, criminalization, political imprisonment, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.
The group said activists, journalists and community organizers should not be treated as combatants simply because of the existence of an armed insurgency.
“As a state mechanism, the NTF-ELCAC must be held strictly accountable for how it exercises government authority,” KAPATID said.
The group further called on Congress to reject the proposed increase in the task force’s funding under the 2027 national budget.
Under the proposed ₱7.2-trillion national budget submitted to Congress, ₱9.74 billion is earmarked for the NTF-ELCAC, up by ₱1.66 billion from its ₱8.08-billion allocation for 2026.
KAPATID said lawmakers should instead completely defund and dismantle the task force by arguing that public funds should not support an institution that it said “enables and institutionalizes red-tagging and its lethal consequences.”
The group said dismantling the NTF-ELCAC is necessary to protect fundamental rights and uphold the principles of a constitutional democracy.#