THE NATIONAL Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Wednesday backed the claim of National Intelligence Coordinating Agency Director-General Alex Paul Monteagudo that the union of Senate employees is a front of the communist group.
Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy said the NTF-ELCAC is convinced that the Sandigan ng mga Empleyadong Nagkakaisa sa Adhikain ng Demokratikong Orgnisasyon (SENADO) is being controlled by the labor group Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE).
COURAGE has been tagged as a front organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).
“The NTF ELCAC stands solidly behind the Director General of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency Alex Paul Monteagudo when he says that COURAGE is a front of the CPP-NPA-NDF and that it functions as the ears and eyes of this terrorist group,” said Badoy, also spokesperson of NTF-ELCAC, in a statement.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Monteagudo ailleged that SENADO is manned by COURAGE and serves as the “eyes and ears of the CPP-NPA-NDF to hijack government plans and programs.”
Badoy agreed with Monteagudo, saying COURAGE’s main goal is to infiltrate and weaken the government “by radicalizing and then recruiting its innocent members who have no idea they are being used.”
SENADO, in a statement, denied links to CPP-NPA-NDF and dismissed Monteagudo’s Facebook post as “malicious, baseless, and dangerous.”
It urged the senators to conduct an investigation into the allegation hurdled against the union, as well as other organizations in government.
Badoy said CPP-NPA-NDF front organizations, after being used by the communist group, “will have nothing to show for it but the grief and destruction they have brought upon themselves and our country.”
“We, therefore, welcome with open arms the call of S.E.N.A.D.O. president and CPP-NPA-NDF operative Rosel Eugenio for a Senate investigation into this matter,” she said.
No red-tagging
Badoy also lamented that several senators keep on using the term “red-tagging” that was invented by CPP-NPA-NDF.
Citing the previous rulings made by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, Badoy said there is no such thing as red-tagging because “there is no danger to life, liberty, and security when someone is identified as member of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”
She made the remarks after Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senators Risa Hontiveros, Leila de Lima, and Francis Pangilinan called for the immediate passage of Senate Bill 2121 or the proposed Act Defining and Penalizing Red-Tagging to “punish irresponsible officials who act as enablers of red-tagging.”
Badoy said the proposed measure would only be used to continue the “unending 52-year saga of grief and suffering of the Filipino people in the hands of the CPP-NPA-NDF who were able to commit unspeakable crimes against us precisely because of the preponderance of legal covers they employed- like COURAGE.”
“Some of the most grievous crimes on the most helpless among us - our children, our indigenous peoples- happened because the masks of thick deceit the CPP-NPA-NDF wore. Masks of ‘human rights defenders’ by the most egregious offenders of it, masks of ‘youth advocates’ while stepping over the thousands of dead bodies of our children who had been deceptively recruited into the CPP-NPA-NDF, masks of ‘defenders of workers’ rights’ while weakening the Constitution and Democracy they had sworn to be faithful to,” she said.
Ending insurgency
Badoy said the NTF-ELCAC would not let communism thrive.
The government’s resolve, she said, is to end communism under President Rodrigo Duterte’s watch.
She made the vow, as she recognized that the 52-year communist scourge has brought “untold pain and sufferings on our people- more so the most helpless among us: our children, our indigenous peoples and the poorest of the poor.”
“The Filipino people have suffered long enough. We are grateful that we finally have a President who will stop at nothing to end the abuse of the Filipino people” Badoy said.
Badoy said stopping insurgency will be the current administration’s “gift” to the people.
“We are one with him (Duterte) in giving this gift to the Filipino people when he steps down in office in 2022: a country in a much better shape than what was handed to us where the CPP-NPA-NDF will be no more. And the Peace that has eluded us will finally be ours and our children’s,” she said.
The CPP-NPA is listed as a terror group by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos)
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