The National Security Council on Friday brushed off the recommendation of United Nations Special Rapporteur Irene Khan to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, or NTF-ELCAC.

Citing the decades-old gains of the government against the communist insurgency in the country, NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said it would be improper to abolish the anti-insurgency task force at this time.

“Given two supervening events — the strategic victory over the New People’s Army and the exploratory peace talks with the CCP-NPA-NDF — it would not be proper at this time to abolish the NTF-ELCAC,” Malaya told reporters in a media briefing at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Preliminary recommendation

Khan, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion, concluded her 10-day visit to the Philippines with a press conference at UN House Manila in Mandaluyong City, where she called for the abolition of the “outdated” anti-insurgency task force.

“It does not take into account the ongoing prospects of peace and negotiations. I therefore recommend that the task force should be abolished,” she said.

According to Khan, the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC “will not address some of the most critical drivers of red-tagging, but it will allow this administration to peacefully modernize approaches based on the changing political landscape.”

Malaya noted that the government viewed Khan’s call for NTF-ELCAC’s abolition as a “preliminary recommendation.”

“We consider it a preliminary recommendation because, as discussed, the final recommendation will come months after, and she, in fact, requested documents and other materials that could be used to complete her recommendation,” he said.

“During the meeting, where we discussed the status of the NTF-ELCAC, we assured her that we are open to reform. We assured her that given the new tone of the current administration, there is an opportunity here for transformation,” Malaya said.

Since its inception in 2018, the NTF-ELCAC, which was established through Executive Order 70 by then-president Rodrigo Duterte, has been criticized for its alleged red-tagging or falsely accusing journalists, human rights advocates, activists, and administration critics of sympathizing with the communist movement without offering any proof.

However, the task force had repeatedly claimed it was merely reporting the facts and not engaging in red-tagging.

Duterte’s successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., kept the interagency structure in place to carry out economic initiatives and grant guerrillas amnesty while maintaining military operations.

Turning back counterproductive

National Security Adviser Eduardo Año rejected Khan’s proposal to abolish the NTF-ELCAC.

“To turn back now will be counterproductive and would render moot the whole-of-nation approach that has been very successful in breaking the back of the CPP-NPA-NDF in the past five years,” he said. “The fact remains that the Communists are not yet finished.”

“Please take note that this is a 52-year-running insurgency. Now that we have reached this stage in the campaign, we feel it is improper to call for its abolition,” he added.

“If the issue is red-tagging, the NTF-ELCAC does not encourage or support red-tagging,” Año said, adding that the issue of red-tagging may be the primary reason Khan is recommending its abolition.

“We wish to underscore once again the Marcos administration has not issued any law, rule, or policy instrument that implements red-tagging or even uses the words red-tagging,” Año said.

He said the “term has no basis and cannot be attributed to any current government policy, program or activity.”

“It is not a policy of anybody or instrumentality of government,” he added.

Khan noted that during her meetings with various civil society groups, their top concern was the red-tagging carried out by state forces.

She suggested that the government issue an executive order condemning red-tagging, and the Commission on Human Rights should move quickly to define red-tagging legally.

“The government doesn’t have a policy of corruption, but the government has a policy on anti-corruption, on fighting corruption. And I have called on the government to adopt a policy fighting red-tagging,” she said.