Rights group hits repeated NTF-ELCAC’s denialism on redtagging
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
10 October 2025
References: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
Rights group hits repeated NTF-ELCAC’s denialism on redtagging
KARAPATAN called anew for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) after the latter vociferously denied, yet again, accusations that it was engaging in red-tagging.
The NTF-ELCAC issued its latest denial at the RP-EU 5th Sub-Committee Meeting on Good Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights held in Brussels, Belgium on October 7, 2025.
“This latest tirade by the NTF-ELCAC is a desperate and defensive move,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay, “since its red-tagging sprees have been condemned by so many entities.”
Among those who have taken the NTF-ELCAC to task over its red-tagging activities, added Palabay, are United Nations Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, climate change and human rights, on freedom of expression and belief and on extrajudicial killings; the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights; several states during the UN Universal Periodic Review; independent experts of the UN Human Rights Committee; the European Parliament through several resolutions and international human rights groups. Locally, she said, red-tagging by the NTF-ELCAC has been assailed by the Supreme Court, lawmakers at the House of Representatives and the Senate, journalists and media organizations, church institutions, people’s organizations and civil society organizations.
“The Supreme Court has ruled that red-tagging, being a danger to one’s life, liberty and security, is a precursor of more serious human rights violations,” said Palabay. “The NTF-ELCAC can whitewash its red-tagging as ‘truth-telling’ and deny red-tagging’s lethalness all it can until its last stinking breath,” said Palabay. “But red-tagging’s many victims who have ended up being killed, forcibly disappeared, unjustly arrested and detained on false charges are irrefutable proof of red-tagging’s serious consequences.”
“The sheer number of organizations and personalities who have seen through the NTF-ELCAC’s lies has driven the red-tagging agency to a corner,” said Palabay. “But we must go beyond driving the NTF-ELCAC to a state of political defensiveness. In the interest of truth, justice and accountability, the NTF-ELCAC must be abolished, and red-tagging a thing of the past.”
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.