Robredo no longer seeks to abolish NTF-ELCAC
Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo on Friday addressed prior claims of her rooting for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), said she now supports its mandate.
METRO MANILA, Philippines — Robredo, also a presidential aspirant in the May 2022 national polls, was briefed about the anti-insurgency campaign of the military, which is focused on providing a "whole-of-nation approach towards economic development and social progress to the countryside".
This was before her meeting with the newly-appointed personnel in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
"I want to address the elephant in the room kasi I've been quoted so many times already that I'm for the abolition of NTF-ELCAC. And I want to emphasize today that I am all for the mandate and the functions of ELCAC. In fact, yung Barangay Development Fund," Robredo said in a statement.
"I think that's the best part of everything. Paniniwala ko, talagang it is only through concepts like this that the problems of insurgency can be addressed upfront," she added.
She said that it was only some members from NTF-ELCAC that put the program "in a bad light" because of 'red-tagging'.
Robredo's statement slightly differs from her position made last 09 November in a forum hosted by the Rotary Club of Makati, when she said she believed the task force should be abolished as it has been used to abuse and harass people.
She even likened NTF-ELCAC to the current administration's Oplan Tokhang, the anti-drug campaign that is criticized for alleged human rights abuses. (HMP/Headline PH)
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