NTF-ELCAC here to stay, but more questions than answers from new leadership after 1st meeting

MANILA, Philippines — "Amnesty" for communist rebels was dangled as a buzzword of sorts, but Friday afternoon’s first press briefing by the National Task Force to End Local Communist’s new leaders left more questions than answers. 

For instance: amnesty for whom, and to what extent?

Numerous times, National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos refused to categorically comment on issues — including her approach to former NSA Hermogenes Esperon's memo shutting down independent news site Bulatlat, or the prospects of a revival of peace tasks under the new administration — preferring instead to point to the final say by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

In a press release handed out to media and read aloud by Carlos, the NTF-ELCAC said that it "strongly recommends the need for offering an amnesty to prevent the resurgence of the communist terrorist group, especially in geographically challenged, isolated and disadvantaged areas."

One by one, agencies from the Defense and Interior departments to the national police and Armed Forces of the Philippines expressed their bureaus' full support for the new administration's whole-of-nation approach to combatting armed insurgency. 

But asked about how it would go about granting this amnesty, National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos said they “don’t know yet the nitty-gritty” of the said recommendation and would leave everything up to the approval of the president.

Peace Process Secretary Carlito Galvez claimed that peace talks with rebels are still ongoing but are "more localized" this time around, asserting that national peace talks which were cut short by no less than former President Rodrigo Duterte never yielded results. 

Galvez said localized peace engagements worked in some regions as “the dynamic of conflicts is different in different areas.” 

The kicker: After leading with promises of amnesty and addressing the root causes of the communist insurgency, Carlos eventually said that full peace talks and granting of amnesty are ultimately still up to President Marcos Jr. 

Critics were optimistic with Carlos' earlier statements about red-tagging being a "lazy and unproductive" practice, which she echoed again on Friday, saying that red-tagging is not the NTF-ELCAC's official policy. 

The task force wanted to highlight “the importance of the whole-of-nation approach in tackling the root causes of armed conflict,” which echoed Carlos’ earlier statements to focus more on ensuring human security issues. 

After that, though, Carlos also backed National Defense officer-in-charge Jose Faustino who said that the task force was simply "unmasking who these groups really are.” 

The former NTF-ELCAC leadership often leaned on this narrative as well, saying they were “truth-tagging” rather than red-tagging. 

Former NTF-ELCAC Spokesperson Lorraine Badoy is facing multiple complaints at the Office of the Ombudsman for her baseless red-tagging accusations filed against her by teachers, religious groups, student leaders, and even former Vice President Leni Robredo. 

The NTF-ELCAC under Duterte was marked by its unbridled red-tagging, defined by Philippine jurisprudence as “branding, naming and accusing individuals and/or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists (used as) a strategy... by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies of the State.’”

The Commission on Human Rights has warned that the practice "violates the constitutional guarantee of presumption of innocence and may have serious implications on the security and movement of individuals."