𝗣𝗕𝗕𝗠 𝘄𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗡𝗧𝗙-𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗔𝗖,𝗡𝗦𝗖 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗮𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗹𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝗽. 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗮𝘀

A National Security Council official said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has drawn an unbreakable red line: the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) will never be abolished.

In a slap-down of Makabayan critics, NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya taunted Gabriela Partylist Rep. Arlene Brosas with a rebuke: “Sorry to break the bad news.”

Proving the government’s anti-insurgency drive won’t back down, no matter the pressure, Malaya quoted the President during the NSC Executive Committee meeting as saying, “I’m encouraged by the reports. Our efforts are bearing fruit. We have to continue. It has been successful. We need to continue to invest in this success.”

“It was the NTF-ELCAC that dealt a heavy blow to the CPP-NPA-NDF; that is why the NPA is at its lowest point in its more than 50 years of reign terror in the countryside,” Malaya said during Wednesday’s press conference in Malacañang.

He added that the President, as the NTF-ELCAC Chairman, recognizes the task force’s success in decimating the terroristic activities of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Only one weakened guerrilla front remains

The government’s relentless anti-rebel campaign, he said, is nearing total victory, with only a single, severely weakened guerrilla front remaining operational in Camarines Sur—a last holdout that is expected to be dismantled entirely before the end of the year.

“At present, there are only 1,050 remaining NPA armed members scattered and isolated in some parts of the country. We started with 89 guerilla fronts and are now at one weakened GF. Our accomplishment rate from the original target is 98.88%,” Malaya said.

He attributed the CPP-NPA’s decline to the deaths of influential leaders like CPP founding chair Joma Sison on December 16, 2022, and the neutralization of key Central Committee figures, including Myrna Sularte alias Maria Malaya, regional secretary of the Northeastern Mindanao Regional Committee, who died in an encounter against government forces in Butuan City, on February 12, 2025.

This leadership vacuum, combined with focused military and police operations, has led to the dismantling of nearly all its guerrilla fronts, socio-economic investments, and a commitment to sustained localized peace engagements signal a dramatic transformation in the battle against the Philippines’ more than five-decade-old insurgency.

“The NPA is also impeded in its recruitment efforts in schools and universities because of the anti-terror grooming and radicalization program of the NTF-ELCAC,” he said, adding that the loss of mass base support has severely undermined its capacity to exert control over local populations.

Once able to impose revolutionary taxes and enforce regulations like the “Permit to Win” and “Permit to Campaign” during elections, he said the CPP-NPA-NDF now lacks the mass bases necessary for such tactics.

He added: “They will not be a significant threat to the peaceful conduct of elections this May,”

CPP-NPA, struggling to survive

Malaya said despite launching their 3rd Rectification Movement to rebuild lost strongholds, communist rebels face an increasingly suffocating reality.

The NTF-ELCAC’s multi-pronged strategy—combining precision military operations, crippling legal sanctions, and transformative socio-economic programs like the Barangay Development Program—has left the CPP-NPA struggling to regain footing.

The noose tightens with the government’s legal and financial restrictions, including Republic Act (RA) 11479 or Anti-Terrorism Act, Securities and Exchange Commission MC 25 that freezes their financial pipelines, Department of Foreign Affairs Note 21-1291 that cuts off international support, and RA 10168 or Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act that strangles funding channels.

“Sumisikip na yung mundo nila (Their world is growing smaller),” Malaya said.

He said Brosas and other leftist allies in the House of Representatives want NTF-ELCAC abolished for one simple reason: it’s defeating their communist insurgency.

“Under President Marcos, the NTF-ELCAC has been an instrument of peace and order, allowing the surrender of over 5,558 surrenderees in 2024 alone,” he said.

He added that this includes 2,033 regular NPA members, 732 Militia ng Bayan, 856 from underground mass organizations (UGMO), 165 from Sangay ng Partido sa Lokalidad (SPL), and 1772 mass supporters.

“All of them were provided ECLIP assistance by the NTF-ELCAC,” he said, referring to the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program, an initiative that supports former rebels and insurgents who surrender and reintegrate into mainstream society with financial, livelihood, and psychosocial assistance to encourage rebels to abandon armed struggle.

In thanking President Marcos Jr. for his 100% support to the NTF-ELCAC, Malaya said the task force “commits to his directive to continue efforts to finally end communist armed conflict in the country within his term.” ###