We do not have to destroy the credibility of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) because it has no credibility to begin with. It is better known for the lies and fabrications it has concocted and kept on recycling to vilify and demonize Karapatan and others advocating truth and are critical of the Duterte government.
The NTF-ELCAC’s recent allegation about the so-called “Oplan Delta” is pure hogwash, as usual. The purported meeting with said agenda and objectives simply never happened. No one will take seriously the delusions of grandeur of Lorraine Badoy, Antonio Parlade Jr. and Marlon Bosantog to run for any elective position in the 2022 elections.
The NTF-ELCAC has concocted another make-believe story to further their ongoing campaign to discredit progressive party-lists of which Karapatan is not. Not so curiously, its so-called “intelligence” report stupidly tagged Karapatan as a “party-list group.” That alone speaks of the level of intelligence and information trustworthiness that the NTF-ELCAC has—nada.
“Oplan Delta” appears to be the newest of the NTF-ELCAC’s rabid red-tagging campaigns with the goal of inflicting the most damage on our organizations and putting our lives in harm’s way. It is another preparation of the public’s mind for such gross violations of the rights of social activists, human rights defenders, peace advocates, public interest lawyers, media people and elements of the Church protecting their flock — such as extra-judicial killings, arrests, torture and detention, enforced disappearance and so many others.
It is in this light that we decry NTF-ELCAC’s red-tagging of our legal counsel Maria Sol Taule and Makabayan Secretary General Nathaniel Santiago, which further endangers their lives and security.
But if Badoy, Parlade and the NTF-ELCAC think that their pathetically desperate fabrications can silence us and stop us from doing our work in defending people’s rights, they are sorely mistaken. Their lies only prove to us the urgency of the call to abolish the NTF-ELCAC.