Metro Manila, May 14 ----- Vice President Sara Duterte has been named as the co-vice chairperson of the government's anti-communist task force.
National Security Adviser Eduardo Año announced in a press briefing on Wednesday that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict's (NTF-ELCAC) executive committee has approved this designation of Duterte, who also concurrently serves as the secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd). "Her unstinting commitment in the cause of the NTF-ELCAC will undoubtedly be very valuable to the task force, and we thank her for accepting the challenge," said Año, the task force's vice chairman.
Año expressed belief that the vice president's experience as a former local chief executive will prove helpful in fighting the communist rebellion in the country. “Ang ating vice president ay napaka-well experienced, being a former mayor of Davao City. As what she said a while ago, ang kanyang mga experiences ay magagamit niya para mai-share ‘yung mga best practices na pwedeng magamit ng iba't ibang ahensya na involved dito sa NTF-ELCAC,” he said.
The vice president is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who ordered the creation of the NTF-ELCAC in 2018. "The so-called protracted war must end," she said during a task force meeting in Malacañang. "This is a show of force a clear, strong, and powerful statement and warning against the enemies of the state who slaughter civilians and Indigenous Peoples, abduct and murder and execute members of our security forces, and attempt to pin down our progress as a nation through their ideals anchored on brainwashing, fear, and terrorism,” she added.
Duterte also stated that the Philippines is "ingrained with the problem of insurgency" through the recruitment of Filipino students to communist organizations. She said communist rebels have "infiltrated" institutions and "remained a serious threat" to Filipino youth. Human rights group Karapatan, however, slammed the designation of Duterte, describing her as a "serial and notorious redtagger. "It only shows the greater need for the abolition of this TF (task force) that has been responsible for numerous cases of human rights violations," read the group’s statement. Earlier, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) raised alarm over the alleged red-tagging of the DepEd under Duterte’s leadership.
This was after Duterte claimed that ACT’s support of a "communist-inspired" transport strike earlier this year showed that the group has a communist ideology, and does not serve the interests of students and teachers. The vice president also previously alleged that ACT's call for the hiring of 30,000 teachers was made to divert attention from clashes initiated by communist rebels against government forces in Masbate in March.
Source: cnnphilippines.com
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