A ranking official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) yesterday scored the National Democratic Front (NDF) in Negros for its “impassioned defense” of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) “spy-tagging” which has so far led to the killing of 40 civilians since 2025.
In a statement, NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres, Jr. said the NDF’s defense of this illegal and brutal tactic has revealed more than it intended to conceal.
“In attempting to dismiss spy-tagging as a fabrication, NDF-Negros inadvertently described the very process it sought to deny. It explained how individuals suspected of being government informants were subjected to ‘investigation,’ how accusations were ‘triangulated,’ and how those deemed guilty may face punishment under what it called ‘revolutionary justice,’” he said.
Despite the NDF-Negros’ attempts to whitewash the NPA’s spy-tagging, Torres said the reality experienced by the ordinary people, tarred by this accusation, does not change.
“There lies precisely the problem. When a civilian is labeled a ‘spy,’ when that accusation is circulated within communities, and when punishment is carried out by an armed group operating outside the Philippine legal system, the reality experienced by ordinary people does not change simply because a different term is used,” Torres said.
He said communities all over the country know what happens next after such allegations are public.
“Intimidation, coercion and, in many tragic cases, execution. Calling this process ‘revolutionary justice’ does not make it justice because it merely attempts to wrap violence in ideological language,” he added.
Torres said Geneva Conventions do not authorize armed groups to conduct secret investigations, pronounce guilt, and execute civilians without transparent proceedings or recognized judicial safeguards.
Even during armed conflicts, the NTF-ELCAC official said individuals accused of espionage or other offenses are entitled to due process before a regularly constituted court that respects fundamental guarantees of fairness.
“What the NDF describes is not such a system. It is an internal mechanism where the accuser, investigator, judge, and executioner belong to the same armed organization. To portray such a system as compliant with humanitarian law is not a legal argument but an attempt to legitimize violence through rhetoric,” Torres said.
He also said the premise underlying the statement must be rejected outright, as the Philippines has only one legitimate government and a Constitution that serves as the basis of the nation’s legal system.
“No armed group, political party, or self-proclaimed revolutionary authority has the legal power to arrest, try, or execute civilians outside that constitutional framework. Justice in a democratic society does not come from the ‘barrel of a gun’ or from the highly questionable verdict of a clandestine committee. It comes from courts of law that operate under the Constitution and are bound by due process and the protection of human rights,” Torres added. (PNA)