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MANILA, Philippines – As if the government that shut down the country’s largest media company was not messy enough, its anti-insurgency task force launched into the fray making it a subject of communist propaganda.
When the government ordered the ABS-CBN broadcast on May 5, journalists and various groups immediately denounced it as an attack on press freedom. President Rodrigo Duterte had finally carried out his threat to block the renewal of the network franchise.
The next day, May 6, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr, head of the Southern Luzon Military Command (Solcom), posted on his Facebook and Solcom pages a defense of the government movement against ABS-CBN.
“Stop insisting on a problem that is not unless you have been paid to do it,” the general said in the message to Amnesty International chief of the Philippines Butch Alano. Parlade criticized the watchdog for accusing the government of attacking press freedom.
“Yes to law and order! Otherwise, you could get the martial law you deserve, “added Parlade, who is also a spokesperson for the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
On May 9, NTF-ELCAC posted on its Facebook page an erroneous defense of the ABS-CBN closure. It also posted a meme accusing Rappler CEO Maria Ressa of “spreading false news” when she wrongly said that ABS-CBN had 11 million employees. By then Ressa was already the owner and apologized for the mistake.
The Office of Presidential Communications Operations (PCOO) shared the NTF-ELCAC posts and then deleted them after journalists and netizens cried.
Why is the NTF-ELCAC, an anti-communist body, so involved in the ABS-CBN issue?
On May 10, PCOO Deputy Secretary Lorraine Badoy, also a spokesperson for NTF-ELCAC, gave a response. “We are fully aware of how the terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF [Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front] exploits the ABS-CBN closure and sees it as an opportunity to wreak havoc and division, through its broad alliances as Amnesty International that has meddled and influenced the narrative they impose on us: the suppression of freedom of press, “Badoy said in a statement.
Parlade summed it up in a later statement on May 12: “The reds go up freely [the] ABS-CBN problem. “
What is NTF-ELCAC?
If Parlade and Badoy are seeing red on a problem that most people would not associate with the communist insurgency, such as press freedom and the problems of a television network, it is because they are part of a government body that is meant to make just that.
President Duterte created NTF-ELCAC in December 2018 as the definitive vehicle for his administration that mobilizes the entire bureaucracy, its networks and resources to crush the 50-year-old communist rebellion, a campaign promise. His term ends in two years. (READ: The end of the matter? Duterte’s romance with the Reds)
The Philippine president who has been kinder to the Communists is now hell-bent on giving them the final blow through the following:
- relentless battlefield operations
- red label of perceived and known communist sympathizers and sympathizers
- mass propaganda war
- legal offensives here and abroad
- localized peace talks
- development projects and livelihoods
- money for returned rebels
When he came to power in June 2016, Duterte welcomed the main leaders of the PCP to Malacañang, a novelty in recent history.
As proof of his good ties dating back to when he was mayor of Davao, Duterte appointed leftist leaders to his cabinet, released political prisoners and reopened the negotiating table between the government and the PCP’s political wing, the NDF.
But by November 2017, the air was filled with accusations of ceasefire violations on both sides. The government considered the rebels’ demands to be too strong. Duterte, angry, suspended the peace talks and hostilities resumed.
The military estimates that the NPA has 3,400 armed regulars today, down from a peak of 25,000 in the late 1980s. (READ: The end of the matter? Duterte’s romance with the Reds)
5 DECADES OF WAR. Members of the New People’s Army Command-Melito Glor in the lower Sierra Madre mountains in Quezon province celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of the Philippines on December 26, 2018. File photo of Alecs Ongcal / Rappler
With NTF-ELCAC, the Duterte government is taking the fight against communist insurgents to towns and communities with more intensity than in previous administrations. The task force tracks rebel presence and influence in all areas of society, and shapes public opinion against them.
This expanded battlefield is the so-called “white area,” where rebels allegedly obtain resources and recruits from unarmed communities and legal organizations.
The working group covers “the socio-political-economic dimension of the counterinsurgency campaign,” AFP deputy director of personnel for Military Civilian Operations, J7, Brigadier General Edgardo de León, told Rappler. “It is not a purely military concern: effectively addressing insurgents’ exploitation of human dissatisfaction to instigate violent and radical change, rather than peaceful transformation.”
AFP Chief of Staff, General Felimon Santos Jr explained: “They are the ones who make up the” whole nation “approach. [to counterinsurgency]. The Philippine Armed Forces (AFP) deal with the armed group, the New People’s Army. NTF-ELCAC integrates all efforts to eliminate all other CPP-NDF strategies to totally eliminate the armed conflict. “
“Counterinsurgency is not just an armed confrontation. NTF-ELCAC is aimed at those who help the communist armed group, “added Santos.
Who composes NTF-ELCAC?
Placed under the Office of the President, NTF-ELCAC is chaired by Duterte himself, with national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr as vice president. It includes cabinet secretaries, military and police chiefs, and some other members.
Duterte’s Executive Order 70 (EO), signed on December 4, 2018, “institutionalizes the nation-wide approach” to fighting communist insurgency, and establishes NTF-ELCAC with the following members:
- Secretary, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)
- Secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ)
- Secretary of the Department of National Defense (DND)
- Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Roads (DPWH)
- Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)
- Secretary of the Finance Department (DOF)
- Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)
- Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
- Secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd)
- Director General, National Authority for Economy and Development (NEDA)
- Director General, National Intelligence Coordination Agency (NICA)
- Director General, Authority for Technical Education and Skills Development (TESDA)
- Presidential adviser on the peace process
- Presidential adviser on the concerns of indigenous peoples
- Chief of Staff, Philippine Armed Forces (AFP)
- Chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP)
- President of the National Commission of Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)
- Secretary, Office of Presidential Communications Operations (PCOO)
- Two representatives from the private sector.
Cabinet secretaries may designate an assistant secretary or assistant secretary for their agency to represent them in the task force.
Also part of the working group:
- NCIP President Allen Capuyan, Executive Director of NTF-ELCAC
- PCOO Deputy Secretary Lorraine Badoy, spokesperson for NTF-ELCAC
- AFP Solcom chief lieutenant general Antonio Parlade Jr, spokesman for NTF-ELCAC
Rappler asked Parlade and another official who the two representatives of the private sector are in the working group. They couldn’t name them at the time of writing.
SECOND IN COMMAND. National Security Advisor General Hermogenes Esperon Jr effectively leads the task force led by the President. File photo of Angie de Silva / Rappler
The Arroyo military
Esperon, Capuyan, and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año are all former Army officers who played key roles under the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who led an aggressive counterinsurgency campaign.
Esperon was chief of military operations when Arroyo ran for president in 2004. He served as chief of staff for the AFP and later as a peace adviser under her, whose mandate was marked by a series of killings and disappearances of political activists.
Capuyan was chief of operations for the military intelligence service (or Isafp) under Arroyo. He allegedly directed wiretapping operations on Arroyo’s political enemies.
Capuyan and Esperon were tagged in the “Hola, Garci” scandal, in which Arroyo and then-electoral commissioner Virgilio Garcillano allegedly conspired to manipulate the 2004 national elections. Having served in Mindanao, Capuyan became one of the first supporters of Duterte within the army.
Year was with the Army Intelligence Security Group in April 2007, when activist Jonas Burgos was kidnapped in a shopping center in the city of Quezon, allegedly by Army intelligence agents, and was never heard from again.
Promoted as “the Rebel Hunter”, the intelligence blows of the Year led to the arrest of the main guns of the rebels, including the president of the CPP, Benito Tiamzon, in March 2014, during the administration of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III . Also, on the other hand, he planned the 2014 arrest of the nemesis of the rebels, retired general Jovito Palparan.
Ano became AFP chief of staff under Duterte, and saw through the 5-month siege of the city of Marawi by the terrorist group Maute in 2017. Following his retirement from the army, Ano was appointed secretary of the interior.
It is not surprising then that the NTF-ELCAC program echoes the Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2 of the Arroyo era, which aimed to “neutralize the command of the White Area and the personalities of the communist movement in sectoral organizations that provide support to the armed struggle”.
Local governments on the front line
With EO 70, the government recognizes that the communist rebellion, or any insurgency, has its roots in social illnesses such as poverty and injustice. That is why it drags almost the entire cabinet to NTF-ELCAC.
In terms of strategy, the working group puts the counterinsurgency focus on the ground, between individual guerrilla fronts scattered across the country.
Duterte security officials said that CCP leaders Joma Sison and Luis Jalandoni have lost contact with their fighters on the ground, making it better to deal directly with NPA guerrilla units, through local governments.
DILG describes 12 “lines of effort” in its implementation guidelines for NTF-ELCAC:
- Local government empowerment – Local governments must be able to “lead peacebuilding efforts sustainably.”
- International commitment – The government will counter the messages of the CPP-NPA-NDF between foreign organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union.
- Legal cooperation – The objective is “to equip government units … with effective and adequate legal skills and knowledge relevant to the communist-terrorist difficulties facing government efforts” in peace.
- Strategic communication – This is the government’s counterpropaganda against the CPP-NPA-NDF, directed by the PCOO.
- Basic services – The goal is “to provide responsive delivery of basic services” so that communities are “conflict resistant”.
- Livelihoods and poverty alleviation – TESDA intervenes between “marginalized communities” to teach them a trade.
- Infrastructure and resource management – DPWH and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources will provide infrastructure and manage local resources “to contribute to the achievement of peace.”
- Peace, law enforcement and development support – This is the military aspect of the working group, led by the DND.
- Situational awareness and knowledge management – This means intelligence work in the CPP-NPA-NDF, led by NICA.
- Localized peace commitment – or “localized peace talks” led by DILG and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process.
- E-CLIP and Amnesty Program – At the center of efforts to disarm insurgents, DND and DILG distribute cash and livelihood assistance to rebels who surrender to the government.
- Sector unification, capacity development, empowerment and mobilization – With the participation of 11 government agencies, this basically means that they will fulfill their mandates to achieve good government, to cut the roots of the rebellion.
Legal fronts and propaganda
The first 4 “lines of effort” – local government empowerment, international engagement, legal cooperation, strategic communication – all involve the white area.
An example of what the NTF-ELCAC was going to do to cut off the supposed sources of support from the communist rebels was its “Caravan of Truth” to Europe in February 2019.
Parlade and a delegation from the PCOO went to Bosnia, Switzerland and Belgium to urge the European Union and the Belgian government to cut funds for some 30 progressive groups that they accused of being legal fronts for the CPP-NPA-NDF.
In the Philippines, security officials, including Año and Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, lobbied Congress to amend the Human Security Law to broaden the definition of “terrorism” and give state forces more leeway to monitor, arrest and arrest terrorist suspects.
The government considers the CPP-NPA-NDF to be a terrorist organization, and the amended law is designed to include them in its scope.
Human rights defenders denounced the updated measure, saying it effectively criminalizes dissent and opposition to the government.
With the expanded anti-terrorism law, progressive groups feared that, with an appearance of legality, they could be targeted by state forces that associated them with the communist insurgency.
Labeled in red
Rights group Karapatan said 3,399 members of progressive groups have been arrested on allegedly false charges since the start of the Duterte administration in June 2016.
In 2019, with EO 70 already in force and NTF-ELCAC in addition to anti-communist operations, government forces began to raid offices of progressive groups with legitimate orders from the courts of justice.
On October 31, joint police and army troops rushed to the labor rights offices and activist groups in the city of Bacolod, arresting 56 members accused of being members of the NPA.
A similar operation in Manila the same day led to the arrest of 3 poor urban activists.
In both cases, officers said they found firearms and explosives at the groups’ offices. They carried search warrants issued by the same judge of the Quezon City Court of First Instance.
On November 4, 44 of those arrested in the city of Bacolod were formally charged with illegal possession of firearms, ammunition, and explosives.
Days later, in a briefing in the House of Representatives on November 7, the DND and the military accused the Gabriela Women’s Party, Oxfam Philippines, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines and 15 other groups of being the CPP front- NPA-NDF organizations.
Government social media accounts have also been used to tag media companies and journalists.
Members of progressive groups condemned these and other forms of intimidation by state forces, calling them “repression” and violation of constitutional freedoms of assembly and expression.
DILG said this made no sense: all police and military actions were covered by court orders.
Old guard arrests
Among the thousands of people arrested in recent years for alleged links to the NPA were two officers from the rebel army, “Ka Diego” and “Kumander Bilog”.
Jaime “Ka Diego” Padilla was seeking treatment for heart disease at the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in the city of San Juan when he was arrested on November 26, 2019.
He is said to be over 60 years old, Padilla is the spokesman for the Tagalog Melito Glor Command of the South NPA. He was charged with murder and kidnapping.
Rodolfo Salas, or “Kumander Bilog”, was arrested on February 18, 2020 in Angeles City, Pampanga. At the same time, he was chair of the CPP and commander of the NPA at the height of his force in the 1980s.
Salas was first jailed in 1987 and then released in 1992. Now 73, he reportedly surrendered peacefully when he was arrested again, this time for his alleged involvement in a mass grave in Leyte.
Arrests like these push the government’s narrative that the CPP-NPA-NDF has lost its fire and relevance, its old guard, either in exile or behind bars.
A forerunner: Task Force Balik-Loob
If the government uses force to intimidate members of progressive groups with alleged links to the NPA, it has a quite different strategy with actual NPA members fighting in the jungles.
When military troops are not attacking the NPA’s lairs, the government encourages its guerrillas to defect, offering them cash and a promise of a peaceful return to civilian life.
“Balik-loob” means “to return to the fold”, and this is the name of another task force created by Duterte before NTF-ELCAC. This former rebel coaching program is a throwback even to the Cory Aquino years. Duterte simply added a twist to it.
The Balik-Loob Task Force was established through Administrative Order 10 of Duterte (AO) on April 3, 2018, to “centralize” the government’s efforts to “reintegrate” the former rebels into society.
Executes the Improved Integral Local Integration Program (E-CLIP), which offers incentives to the guerrillas in exchange for their surrender:
- P15,000 when enrolling in the program
- P50,000 in livelihood assistance when your social reintegration process is complete
- Remuneration according to the value of the firearms they deliver
- Housing assistance or a government housing unit
- 3-year local government, PNP and AFP security guarantee
- Medical and health care.
- Legal assistance if necessary
- An option to enroll in the government’s conditional cash transfer program
Meanwhile, a military or police unit receives P21,000 for every former rebel they take under their protection, “to defray their cost of subsistence or meals while in custody, and other incidental costs incurred,” such as to obtain government authorizations and documents. for them.
This program is run by the DND and the military, with the help of local governments.
Weapon of choice
When NTF-ELCAC was created, Task Force Balik-Loob came under its jurisdiction. The E-CLIP and the 2011 Payapa Socio-economic Program in Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA) have become the government’s weapon to starve the NPA of fighters, even as military and police offensives continue.
Security officials and senior military officials have hailed these “localized peace talks” by NTF-ELCAC as a counterinsurgency success.
They believe so much in this that Esperon and Lorenzana openly disagreed with Duterte when he tried to revive the peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF in December 2019. The two former military generals said that NTF-ELCAC was working well and that they were talking to Sison Sería. a waste of time.
With EO 70 in effect, AFP said Communist rebels lost 10,918 fighters in 2019. They were killed in armed encounters, detained, or surrendered to the government.
In his assumption speech in January 2020, the head of AFP Santos said that almost 1,200 guerrillas surrendered in 2019 in eastern Mindanao, where he was the military commander before becoming the head of AFP.
On April 24, Duterte revealed in a recorded speech that he scrapped Sison’s latest proposal for the December peace talks after the army rejected the rebel leader’s demands.
‘Law and order’
On several occasions, Santos said he is confident that the military can end the 5-decade insurgency by the end of the Duterte administration in June 2022.
This, because he believes that the NTF-ELCAC got the formula right: offer the poor, tired, battle scarred guerrillas with a reset button, and eliminate organizations that inject new blood into the armed struggle.
However, Duterte continues to brandish the NPA as a threat almost as sinister as the coronavirus pandemic, judging by the amount of time he spends talking about it during his televised speeches.
In a recorded speech delivered on Tuesday, May 12, Duterte offered a P2 million reward to anyone who captured or killed the “top NPA commanders.”
More than once, he threatened to declare martial law if the “illegality” of the NPA persists during the pandemic.
This is the same threat, martial law, that Parlade launched against Amnesty International and against anyone who accused the government of attacking press freedom by closing ABS-CBN.
The shutdown, in his opinion, was “law and order” at work, and anyone who disagrees simply gives the Communists fodder for their waning fire. – with a report by Jodesz Gavilan / Rappler.com
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