BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Regional Task Force 6- Ending Local Armed Communist Conflict (RTF6-ELCAC) yesterday slammed former Bayan Muna partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares, who is a Negrense, on his verbal assault against NTF-ELCAC, which he accused for the illegal arrests of activists and red-tagging of the present administration critics.
Colmenares, a senatorial aspirant, said he found the statements of Vice President Leni Robredo on supporting NTF-ELCAC’s functions as worrisome.
“May I respectfully point out to the Vice President that the problem with the NTF-ELCAC cannot be merely attributed to its ‘careless members’ but to a systemic policy that includes harassment and attacks against anyone perceived to be left-leaning or critical of the administration,” Colmenares, in a statement he issued said.
“In this light, VP Leni’s seeming turnaround on her earlier call to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict”, he added. “We denounce the malicious and irresponsible verbal tirade of Neri Colmenares against the NTF-ELCAC, RTF6-ELCAC spokesperson Flosemer Chris Gonzales said in a statement posted in the Facebook account of the Army’s 303rd Infantry Brigade.
The NTF-ELCAC is not militaristic, cruel, and anti-people, Gonzales stressed, adding that Colmenares is ignorant of the nature and functions of the NTF-ELCAC.
Otherwise, he would have known that the NTF-ELCAC was established to put an end to the communist insurgency by addressing the root causes of insurgency, Gonzales said, in a statement he issued.
Neri Colmenares should have known that the NTF-ELCAC is responsible for bringing much needed infrastructure and basic social services to conflict affected areas thru the Barangay Development Program under the guiding principles of the whole of nation approach and good governance, he also said.
Gonzales further said that the statements of Neri Colmenares are nothing more than the standard propaganda attack lines of groups that have been established to perpetually criticize and malign the government.
He, however, said that RTF6-ELCAC appreciated the statement of VP Leni Robredo by affirming the vital role of the NTF-ELCAC in ending the local communist armed conflict.
Following his meeting with top officials of the Armed, VP Leni said “I want to emphasize today that I am all for the mandate and the functions of ELCAC,” adding that she supports the Barangay Development Fund.
At least, there is no more need for us to sit down in a dialogue because you realized that the NTF-ELCAC is indeed a whole of nation approach that addresses the root causes of the communist insurgency, Gonzales said.
However, he added that the statements of VP Leni can be further concretized if she will condemn in the strongest words possible, all the atrocities committed by the CPP-NPA against the Filipino people as well as condemn all those who provide material support to the CPP-NPA communist terrorist group thru their pseudo legal fronts.*
