MANILA, Philippines — The head of the Department of Interior and Local Government wants to retain a Duterte-era anti-insurgency body that local and international human rights experts have called to scrap.
Instead of dismantling the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos said he prefers to "upgrade" the controversial body and ensure that former armed insurgents do not regret their decision to surrender.
"This program is very effective... Those who really need help receive the money directly. P50,000 for livelihood [and] immediate assistance is there," Abalos said in mixed Filipino and English during the Senate's deliberations of the DILG's proposed 2025 budget on Thursday, September 19.
The DILG has been a part of the NTF-ELCAC since its creation in 2018 under former President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order (EO) 70. Since then, the task force has seen its sprawling membership reach nearly every major agency in Philippine government.
As the agency responsible for overseeing local government units, the DILG implements the NTF-ELCAC's flagship barangay development program, where it awards millions in funds to barangays that are "cleared" of rebel groups. These funds are then used to implement poverty alleviation and development projects.
But the barangay development program has recently drawn flak from House lawmakers during budget hearings after DILG officials told them that all 692 of the NTF-ELCAC's barangay development programs in 2024 remained unfinished.
For Abalos, the NTF-ELCAC provides former rebels a "way to return to the fold" as various government agencies readily extend them help in doing so, he said in mixed Filipino and English.
"We should strengthen [the NTF-ELCAC] even more to show them that they won’t regret it. They believed that they could truly change their lives. That's my take on this," Abalos said.
Makabayan bloc lawmakers have repeatedly called for the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC and the realignment of its funds to social welfare and education items.
For 2025, the NTF-ELCAC stands to get P9.25 billion, of which P7.83 billion will go to its barangay development program. This is at least three times higher than the P2.2 billion the flagship program received for 2024.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been keen to retain the task force his predecessor built even as two United Nations special rapporteurs have flagged it for red-tagging and endangering government critics and members of civil society.
Rapporteurs are independent experts reviewing countries' rights situations for the UN.
Human rights group Amnesty International said the government's decision to continue bankrolling the anti-insurgency task force is proof that the Marcos administration "keeps on funding harassment and attacks against activists."