By MARTHA TEODORO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Filled with lies.

This is the reaction of the Philippine UPR Watch, a network of faith-based and human rights organizations engaging with the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council (HRC) on the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)’s response to the report of special rapporteur Irene Khan. 

In her report on her 2024 official visit to the Philippines, the UN expert on freedom of expression and opinion noted that red-tagging has continued to threaten freedom of expression in the country. She critically emphasized the anti-insurgency task force’s role in encouraging human rights violations through red-tagging.

“For the sake of human rights, including freedom of expression, and peaceful reconciliation, and because of the importance of decisively turning the page on past violations, the government should consider the abolition of the task force,” Khan said.

NTF-ELCAC executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. dismissed Khan’s findings, claiming the agency “actually opened democratic spaces and not closed them.” 

He also claimed that the agency has fostered dialogue in places where the government “was once unwelcome.” 

Torres’ dismissal of Khan’s findings in turn was condemned by the Philippines UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch now in Geneva, Switzerland attending the UN HRC session.

“The NTF-ELCAC’s convoluted concept of ‘peace and development’ means that everything it does—from red-tagging to threats, from abductions and enforced disappearances and fake surrenders to killings and bombings—should be accepted as long as it wipes out any communist, dissenter, or social change advocate,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in response to Torres’ statement. 

The task force undermines rights and freedoms down through its fascist approach and means,” she added. 

Palabay also belied Torres’ statement saying that what NTF-ELCAC is doing is simple “truth telling.” 

“Stories from the ground belie their twisted narratives. Farmers and rural poor suffer from fake surrenders, their lives and livelihoods disrupted by so-called NTF-ELCAC’s projects,” Palabay said, adding that these claims of the agency have been debunked. 

Palabay added that their group had documented 563 incidents of fake surrenders since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. began his term as president. 

She said that most of the victims were “deceived into queuing for aid, but once there, found themselves joining ‘surrender ceremonies’ where they were misrepresented as ‘armed rebels returning to the folds of the law.’”

Josalee Deinla, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) secretary general, emphasized that red-tagging exists in the country as pointed out by the Supreme Court in 2024. 

“Khan did not conjure these findings out of thin air but from rigorous consultations with Philippine government officials, including state security forces, and several civil society organizations. The Special Rapporteur was able to sift through the lies,” she said. 

Ronalyn Olea, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) secretary general, also condemned the Philippine government’s comment that threats to journalists are mere “allegations.” 

“Planting firearms and explosives while Frenchie [Cumpio] and Marielle [Domequil] were taken out of their apartment is not lawful. Their prolonged pre-trial detention is already a violation of their rights,” she said.

“Refusing to address the root causes of the armed conflict is not the way to peace,” Bishop Joseph Agpaoa, acting general secretary of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), said. “Repressing critical voices will only foment further tension and unrest,” he said.

UPR Watch said the Marcos Jr. administration is being hypocritical before the international community.

“Its adamant refusal to abolish [the NTF-ELCAC] shows his [Marcos Jr.] imprimatur for every violation of human rights and international humanitarian law that this task force commits,” the group said in a statement. 

Khan’s report, it added, “puts the obligation to abide by international human rights conventions squarely on Marcos who heads the NTF-ELCAC.” The Philippine UPR Watch is a delegation of human rights advocates that engages in the process of the United Nation’s Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review. Its member organizations include Karapatan, Bayan, Moro-Christian People’s Alliance, National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), and National Council of Churches in the Philippines, among others. (With reports from Anne Marxze Umil) (RBV)