National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson, Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy (File photo)
MANILA – The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is created to stop more than 52 years of atrocities committed by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and the recruitment of minors by its allied legal organizations.
"We are therefore here to end over 52 years of grief and suffering brought on the Filipino people by the CPP-NPA-NDF terrorists," Lorraine Badoy, NTF-ELCAC spokesperson on Social Media and Sectoral Concerns, said in a statement on Thursday.
Badoy made this comment in response to the Makabayan bloc solons who have called for the removal of the PHP16.44 billion budget allocated for the task force's anti-communist insurgency programs.
Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas earlier vowed to block the anti-insurgency task force's 2022 budget after Badoy said in a House of Representatives budget hearing that NTF-ELCAC seeks to oust the Makabayan bloc members from Congress through legal means.
Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, on the other, said the NTF-ELCAC budget is being used for red-tagging operations and “very vulnerable to graft and corruption.”
"High ranking party members of the CPP-NPA-NDF Arlene Brosas and Carlos Zarate have taken issue with me because I said that the NTF-ELCAC aims to take out the Joma Sison Bloc from Congress. They have both threatened to block the budget of the NTF ELCAC because of this,” Badoy said.
She said the budget allotted for NTF-ELCAC is being used to help NPA members who opted to return to the folds of the law.
"First of all, that money is not yours, Ka Arlene and Ka Kaloi. It is the Filipino people’s—and they are sick and tired of the terrorist organization you are part of and would like nothing more than to have it stricken off the face of the earth," she said. “Second, did these stooges of Joma Sison fail to note that NTF-ELCAC stands for National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, not National Task Force to Promote Communist Terrorism?"
Badoy said the Makabayan bloc lawmakers have something to do with the communist terrorist groups (CTGs) and have been covering up the enabling "radicalization and recruitment of our children into violent extremism" among their ranks.
"Even in the murder of Kieth Absalon, they have remained relentlessly focused and totally devoid of shame in using the death of this gifted athlete — to further the goals of the CPP-NPA-NDF by manipulating the government to go to the table for another round of that sarcastically named ‘peace talks’ that are so bereft of sincerity that we might as well call it what it is — piss talks," she said.
Reiterating President Rodrigo Duterte's stand on peace talks with the CPP-NPA-NDF, Badoy said there will be no peace talks that would be pushed under the present administration.
"Our President has already spoken, mga Kas. There will not now or ever be — while he sits as President — any peace talks with you liars. So you can kiss that terrorist pipe dream goodbye. The Philippine government pisses on your phoney piss talks that we entered into with complete sincerity while your side made sure the body count of our men and women in uniform reached sky-high while we were talking peace," she said.
Badoy said only genuine peace talks are found at the local levels wherein more than 14,000 former NPA combatants have laid down their arms and return to the folds of the law.
These anti-insurgency accomplishments, she said, were achieved through the whole-of-nation efforts of the NTF-ELCAC and the participating agencies, local government units, and barangay development partners.
"The peace that has eluded our country is now at hand. No thanks to your phoney piss talks and thanks to NTF-ELCAC," she said.
She said the task force has already accomplished unprecedented gains for the Philippines under the current administration.
Badoy also slammed the Makabayan solons for pretending as "genuine" members of the House of Representatives.
"You got there, by deceiving the Filipino people with the CPP-NPA-NDF’s elaborate sectoral block voting mechanism and by lying to the Filipino people about who you truly are: 6 of the most hardcore members of the CPP-NPA-NDF who can be counted on to meet the goals of this terrorist organization. You do not represent the Filipino people. You represent Joma Sison and the terrorist organization, the CPP-NPA-NDF," Badoy said, referring to Brosas, Zarate, Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago, Act-Teachers Rep. France Castro, Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Cullamat, and Rep. Ferdinand Gaite.
Despite the Makabayan lawmakers' threat to block the NTF-ELCAC's 2022 fund, Badoy said she will continue to hold faith that the majority of the members of Congress would pass the anti-insurgency budget of the task force that is "mandated to end the suffering of the Filipino people with its courageous defense and protection of them."
Badoy said she will be relentless to seek justice for those who were victimized by senseless attacks and violence perpetrated by the CPP-NPA-NDF.
"I live and work for the day when you, the leaders of this biggest crime syndicate in the country, will pay for all the blood crimes you have committed against the most helpless in our midst—our indigenous peoples, the children we have lost," Badoy said.
"From the Commission on Human Rights to Human Rights Watch to the House of Representatives and Senate and to every Filipino who now stand with the NTF ELCAC on our shared ground of rage and indignation at the dimming of this bright star, Kieth Absalon, by violent extremists who didn’t think it was enough to detonate an anti-personnel mine on unarmed civilians but had to shoot Kieth at close range to bring home the message of terrorism that you espouse on the sacred floor of Congress. It is the duty and moral obligation –not just of the NTF ELCAC—but of every Filipino to protect this venerated institution and make sure you and the rest of the NPA Bloc are taken out of it," she added.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)
