A ranking official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) scored the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) for its renewed wave of “spy-tagging” killings, which have targeted civilians.

“Spy-tagging is the CPP-NPA’s most convenient weapon. It is not discipline. It is not revolution. It is murder,” NTF-ELCAC executive director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres, Jr. said in a statement.

He described the practice as “a death sentence imposed without truth, trial or humanity,” calling out groups that refuse to denounce the execution of unarmed civilians.

Torres also pointed out that the recent killings in Negros, where at least 15 farmers, barangay officials and residents have been summarily executed since early 2024, expose the CPP-NPA’s continuing pattern of terror and community control.

“These people were not combatants. They were fathers, mothers, youth, workers — ordinary community members whose only ‘crime’ was being arbitrarily labeled as ‘military assets’ by a terrorist organization desperate to maintain influence through fear,” he added.

The NTF-ELCAC official also noted that the atrocities in Negros mirror the CPP-NPA’s infamous purge campaigns — Kampanyang Ahos, Operation Missing Link, Project Olympia, Oplan Zombie, and Kadena de Amor — where thousands were tortured and killed after being falsely accused of espionage.

Torres said the pattern remains unchanged and is still “accuse, isolate and kill.”

He also criticized certain left-leaning organizations and the Makabayan bloc for refusing to condemn the killings.

“For groups that loudly claim to champion human rights, their silence on the executions in Negros is deafening,” Torres said. “Silence is complicity. Their refusal to denounce the killings of farmers, barangay officials, and indigenous peoples exposes the hypocrisy behind their constant calls for justice.”

These killings, he said, cannot be dismissed as internal matters of the communist movement.

“These are crimes against the Filipino people. No community should ever be forced to live under the shadow of communist violence,” he pointed out.

He called on local governments, civil society organizations, youth groups, academe, religious institutions, and the media to collectively condemn the atrocities and resist efforts to normalize the CPP-NPA’s purge-style executions. (PNA)