NTF-ELCAC backs Comelec hearing on Kabataan Partylist DQ

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) expressed support Wednesday for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) as it prepares for a Thursday disqualification hearing against Kabataan Partylist.

NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto C. Torres Jr. characterized the proceedings as a “timely warning” intended to protect Filipino youth from exploitation and violent radicalization.

He also stressed that the hearing is a matter of law and due process rather than political theater.

The task force alleged a “disturbing pattern” of youth associated with Kabataan-affiliated networks eventually joining the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Torres described this transition from campus activism to armed insurgency as an ideological “pipeline.”

“When young students repeatedly surface in NPA structures, it ceases to be coincidence,” the task force statement read.

The petition before the Comelec is anchored on the PartyList System Act, which prohibits organizations that advocate or support armed rebellion from participating in elections. The task force stated the petition relies on sworn testimonies and documented affiliations to argue that the group has become a staging ground for recruitment into the underground movement.