HOUNDING OF TWO YOUTH ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS STRESS THE NEED TO DISMANTLE NTF-ELCAC
The Asia-Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP) condemns the warrant of arrest against youth environmental defenders Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro coming from an oral defamation case by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Tamano and Castro are two youth environmental activists that were abducted last year, September 2 by state forces in Orion Bulacan. After calls and efforts by loved ones and human rights defenders, they were ‘resurfaced’ as ‘rebel surrenderees’ by Philippine state forces on a September 19 press conference. However, they told everyone in that press conference that they were actually abducted, refuting statements and claims made by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
The NTF-ELCAC, established in 2018, through the Executive Order 70, is an inter-governmental task force by the Philippine government aimed at ending the five-decade long civil war in the country. However, instead of addressing the roots of armed conflict, its ‘whole-of-nation approach’ has only involved more government agencies with witch-hunts such as red-tagging and forced surrenders of peasants. Like Tamano and Castro, thousands of peasants around the country have been forced to ‘surrender’ through intimidation and violence, receiving meager aid.
The NTF-ELCAC has been involved with human rights violations, such as the Bloody Sunday Massacre of 2021. Human rights violations associated with the NTF-ELCAC have made many people to call for its abolishment, including United Nations Special Rapporteurs Ian Fry and Irene Khan. The Special Rapporteurs have been made aware of the case of Tamano and Castro. The case of the two environmental defenders relate to the findings of Fry that the NTF-ELCAC and the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, especially with their red-tagging, present obstacles and violations of indigenous peoples and advocates to defend the environment. Tamano and Castro have been active in the campaign to defend Manila Bay against reclamation, which has displaced fisherfolk and urban poor communities in the area.
The APCHRP joins the international community, in deep solidarity with the Filipino people, in the call to abolish the NTF-ELCAC. The hounding of the two youth environmental defenders stress the need to dismantle this agency. Even though the agency was established under the Duterte administration, its continuous existence and gargantuan budget make the Marcos administration to continue the sins of its predecessor. Instead of fostering a safe and free environment for human rights defenders, it seems that the state is still pushing through with witch-hunts that have only brought human rights violations.
Freedom-loving citizens of the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific must collectively call for the dismantling of the NTF-ELCAC. Instead of red-tagging and other human rights violations, the Government of the Philippines must address the root-causes of social unrest. Uphold the rights and well-being of the Filipino people.
