VICE President Leni Robredo yesterday said she back the mandate and functions of the National Taskforce to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) but is against its reckless red-tagging of individuals and groups.
“Wala naman nagbago sa statement ko. Hindi ako against sa mandate ng NTF-ELCAC na whole-of-nation approach against insurgency. Against ako sa NTF-ELCAC (members) who go beyond the mandate that the task force is given (My statement didn’t change. I am not against the mandate of the NTF-ELCAC of using whole-of-nation approach against insurgency. What I am against is NTF-ELCAC members who go beyond the mandate the task force is given,” Robredo said in Cebu City.
The Vice President, the opposition’s presidential aspirant, went around Cebu and held a press conference with former Mayor Tommy Osmeña and his wife, Margot, who is running for mayor.
Robredo made the statement weeks after she was criticized for supporting the NTF-ELCAC’s mandate despite openly opposing the red-tagging activities of some of its members.
In a security meeting with the AFP last November 27, Robredo said that she supports the “mandate and the functions” of the NTF-ELCAC, a statement which the left-leaning groups said was a complete turnaround from her previous vow to abolish the task force.
For one, Bayan Muna chair and senatorial aspirant Neri Colmenares had said Robredo’s “seeming turnaround on her earlier call to abolish the NTF-ELCAC is worrisome.”
Colmenares believes the problem with the NTF-ELCAC “cannot be merely attributed to its ‘careless members’ but to a systemic policy that includes harassment and attacks against anyone perceived to be left-leaning or critical of the administration.”
The Vice President, who supports the task force’s use of its Barangay Development Fund to help villages under the influence of the communist CPP-NPA, has said only the “careless” members of the task force has put it in a bad light and not the whole body.
Robredo said she is against the NTF-ELCAC’s identification of who can be considered communist rebel, stressing that its mandate is beyond politics and should not be used to harass the Duterte administration’s political opponents.
“I am for incentivizing barangays (that are insurgency-free). Ang hindi ako in agreement ay iyong (What I don’t agree with is) NTF-ELCAC (is) becoming so powerful that it has been used to harass, and I am also at the receiving end of the red- tagging. Red-tagging is something we do not take lightly,” she said.
