The National Security Council (NSC) said it rejected “all calls” to abolish the government’s anti-insurgency task force, adding that it is “unfounded and uncalled for.”

NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has been crucial to the government’s initiatives in fighting communist insurgency. 

“The NTF-ELCAC has been the game changer in the battle against the New People’s Army (NPA) and their allied and front organizations,” he said. 

Malaya said the NPA has been strategically defeated, noting that there are only nine weakened guerilla fronts with around 1,000 remaining armed members scattered in remote areas across the country. 

“Peace is finally within our reach,” he added. 

Malaya stressed that  leftist groups have been adamant in their calls for NTF-ELCAC’s abolition “because the government is well on its way to achieving complete victory against the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People’s Army and National Democratic Front

(CPP-NPA-NDF) and they don’t want that to happen.”

“The Leftist groups clearly don’t want us to win against the CPP-NPA-NDF. They clearly don’t want to see the end of the Communist insurgency in our country. Why? We should ask them,” he added. 

Malaya scored some leftist organizations for being “anti-peace and anti-development.”

“Karapatan, Gabriela, and Human Rights Watch (HRW), among others, have made the calls after the Supreme Court declared red-tagging a threat to people’s life, liberty, and security, and could warrant the issuance of a protection order,” he said. 

Red-tagging issues

Meanwhile, Malaya emphasized that nowhere in the 39-page decision of the Supreme Court in Deduro v. Vinoya, G.R. No. 254753 “does it state the NTF-ELCAC is responsible for so-called red-tagging.” 

“The Supreme Court never said that the NTF-ELCAC is a notorious red-tagger. In fact, the NTF-ELCAC is not a party to the case nor was it impleaded so why it is now being linked to this decision boggles the mind? It’s

non-sequitor,” Malaya said.