Human rights groups reiterated the call for the abolition of the anti-people and corrupt National Task Force (NTF)-Elcac in a protest marking the agency’s seventh anniversary on December 4. Groups led by Karapatan held a protest that day at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) national office in Quezon City.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 created the NTF-Elcac on December 4, 2018. The establishment of the agency embodied the state’s anti-insurgency policy called the “whole-of-nation approach.” Duterte first convened the NTF-Elcac in May 2019. The bureaucracy was revamped to place various civilian agencies under military control.

According to Karapatan, the state should fund social services that directly benefit the people instead of allocating billions of pesos to the NTF-Elcac. The NTF-Elcac has received more than ₱30 billion from previous General Appropriations Acts (GAA) for its operations and “projects” since 2019. For 2026, the Marcos regime has proposed ₱8.8 billion for the agency, 314% higher than its budget for 2025.

“[This fund] is not only a waste of public money but is also used to finance repression,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said. The NTF-Elcac currently serves as the main implementer of the Marcos regime’s counterinsurgency policy, the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD).

Using the NAP-UPD, the Marcos regime and the NTF-Elcac have explicitly declared targeting progressive mass organizations and human rights defenders. This action stems from the regime’s repeated allegation that these organizations serve as fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army.

This framework relentlessly perpetuates the state forces’ campaign of Red-tagging and threats, along with harassment and attacks on activists and others who speak out and take a stand. Based on Karapatan’s data, at least 10 million Filipinos have become victims of NTF-Elcac’s Red-tagging. Palabay said Red-tagging constricts the space for discourse on social issues and terrorizes those who wish to speak.

Aside from cases of human rights violations, Karapatan also urges an investigation into the NTF-Elcac budget for corruption. NTF-Elcac officials have previously mentioned that aside from its funding from the GAA, it also receives money from Marcos’s unprogrammed allocations (UA). Over the past years, government auditors have repeatedly criticized the agency for failing to liquidate funds and for missing documents and transactions.

“This terrorist agency is a bane to the Filipino people,” Palabay said. “It must be abolished immediately.”