Anti-communist gov't task force posts false quote of Anakbayan spokesperson
MANILA, Philippines — The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict posted a graphic with a fabricated statement attributed to Anakbayan spokesperson Alex Danday on its official social media accounts.
We need to expose these terrorists preying on our sons and daughters in their schools. #NoToCTGrecruitment#NTFELCAC#EO70@anakbayan_ph pic.twitter.com/tdkQui54Sc
— NTFELCAC (@ntfelcac) January 20, 2020
"You can't be that high up the hierarchy of Anakbayan if you aren't a ranking party member of the CPP-NPA-NDF (Communisty Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratric Front,” reads the photo quote featuring Danday and Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy.
Danday, who was tagged by the post on Twitter, denied the statement and immediately called out the state task force.
“Desperado...Imbes na ituon niyo ang oras niyo sa pagtulong sa mga kababayan nating nasalanta at gamitin 'yang kakarampot niyong utak para isipin paano ibabangon ang kabuhayan ng mga naapektuhan ng kalamidad, busy kayong magpakalat ng fake news at manira,” Danday tweeted in response to the NTF-ELCAC post.
(Desperate. Instead of focusing your time on helping our countrymen affected by calamity and using what remains of your brains to figure out how to salvage the damaged livelihoods, you are busy spreading fake news and causing harm.)
Desperado
— ALEX (@alexdanday) January 20, 2020
Imbes na ituon niyo ang oras niyo sa pagtulong sa mga kababayan nating nasalanta at gamitin 'yang kakarampot niyong utak para isipin paano ibabangon ang kabuhayan ng mga naapektuhan ng kalamidad, busy kayong magpakalat ng fake news at manira. Walang kwenta. https://t.co/LkFZkRedEv
The quote attributed to Danday, however, almost exactly matches a line from Badoy's column "The Pied Piper of Death a.k.a. Anakbayan 101" published last Wednesday on the Philippine News Agency website.
“You can’t be that high up on the hierarchy of Anakbayan if you aren’t a ranking party member of the CPP-NPA-NDF,” Badoy penned, verbally referring to Danday.
However, the Undersecretary for New Media and External Affairs, who replied to comments on the NFT-ELCAC Facebook post using her verified account, did not point this out.
The NTF-ELCAC is directly under the Office of the President and was formed through Executive Order 70, issued in December 2018. President Rodrigo Duterte serves as the chair, while National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. serves as vice chair.
Since its formation, more legal activists and civilians have been the subject of red-tagging and human rights violations, according to Karapatan.
Detained Sen. Leila de Lima even urged the Senate in November to conduct a probe into the red-tagging and rights abuses allegedly committed by the NTF-ELCAC.
“NTF-ELCAC was supposedly created to address problems of insurgency by shifting the strategy from a military to a civilian approach. However, according to reports, it has been used for political persecution, harassment and even violation of human rights,” De Lima said in a release.
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