The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) dismissed claims of human rights group Karapatan, calling it the “biggest NPA (New People’s Army) recruiter” in the country.
In a statement, NTF-ELCAC executive director, Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., said this “latest propaganda piece” is an attempt by the militant group to distort reality and evade accountability for the tragic fate of individuals who ultimately entered the underground movement and armed struggle.
“This latest statement bears the unmistakable trademark of the CPP-NPA-NDF [Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front] ecosystem: deny responsibility, romanticize death, rewrite narratives, weaponize grief, and convert every tragedy into propaganda,” he added.
Torres also said the allegation is not just false but also a breathtaking exercise in hypocrisy from an organization that projects itself as a defender of human rights while repeatedly displaying a deeply selective and distorted sense of morality.
The NTF-ELCAC official said the militant group often speaks loudly for personalities aligned with communist causes, yet has often been accused by critics of maintaining deafening silence over the suffering inflicted by the CPP-NPA-NDF on countless civilians, Indigenous peoples, barangay officials, former rebels, soldiers, police personnel, and ordinary Filipinos who endured decades of violence, extortion, intimidation, internal purges, and executions.
Torres said this is the reason why many Filipinos are now asking whether Karapatan truly defends human rights universally — or only when the victims fit the ideological preferences of its comrades.
“The central moral issue that Karapatan desperately wants buried is simple: people do not suddenly wake up one morning and become armed insurgents. There is a process. There is a pipeline. There is recruitment. There is ideological conditioning. There is radicalization. There is underground work. There is eventual absorption into armed structures. Former rebels and surrendered cadres have repeatedly narrated how this process unfolds — beginning with seemingly legitimate advocacy spaces and ending in underground operations and armed struggle,” he added.
While the group may continue to dismiss the concerns raised against it, Torres said that publicly accessible records, media reports, and open-source accounts continue to raise difficult questions that cannot be brushed aside through rhetoric alone.
Torres cited as example in 2021, Alexandrea “Alexa” Pacalda of Quezon and Glendhyl Malabanan of Palawan were identified as Karapatan members who authorities later found participating in armed NPA activities, including appearing in a captured training video.
In the same year, Honey Mae Suazo, former secretary-general of Karapatan – Southern Mindanao, posted bail for Zaldy Canete alias “Ka Jinggoy,” identified by authorities as the leader of the NPA’s 1st Pulang Bagani Command.
Media reports likewise cited former Karapatan-Negros Secretary-General Fred Caña in relation to fundraising efforts for the cash bonds of Romeo Nanta, identified as head of the NPA Regional Operations Command – Negros Island; Hernando Llorente alias “Ka Adoy,” identified as commander of the Northern Negros Front; and Faith Roseen Basergo alias “Ka Bea,” identified in reports as an NPA political instructress.
In addition to this, Genelyn “Gemma” Dichoso, former secretary-general of Karapatan-Quezon, later surrendered and was presented by authorities as having left the movement.
“It reveals a painful and uncomfortable reality: Critics of the movement have long argued that behind slogans of activism and rights advocacy lies a machinery that gradually pulls vulnerable young people into a cycle ending not in empowerment — but in funerals. Not scholarships, but rifles. Not communities, but armed encounters. Not a future — but graves,” the NTF-ELCAC official stressed.
CHR pressed to probe NPA’s ‘spy-tagging’ killings in Negros
As this developed, the NTF-ELCAC official called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to look into the NPA’s “spy-tagging” killing of civilians in Negros.
“The CHR must no longer remain selectively vocal on these civilian killings perpetrated by the remnants of the NPA,” he added.
Torres said the CHR must act with dispatch, fulfill its universal mandate, and demonstrate equal resolve in condemning and investigating these executions.
“Human rights are not exclusive to armed rebels, activists, or ideological allies. Human rights belong equally to poor farmers, church workers, tricycle drivers, laborers, former rebels, barangay officials, and ordinary civilians murdered in remote communities,” the NTF-ELCAC official noted.
He also urged the CHR to demand accountability and stand with the victims and their grieving families.
Earlier, Torres said that from 2021 to May 2026 alone, at least 59 documented spy-tagging killings and summary executions perpetrated by the CPP-NPA-NDF have been recorded across the country.
Of these, an overwhelming 51 victims were killed in the Negros Island Region — 41 in Negros Occidental and 10 in Negros Oriental. (PNA)