Carlos says she’s willing to change position on institutionalizing NTF-ELCAC

National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos on Tuesday said she is willing to change her initial position against the institutionalization of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

She said she considered Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa's response to her concerns involving the duplication of functions among agencies as well as the duration of its existence.

“Thank you very much, Senator Dela Rosa. You have made a very compelling argument that's why it should be made into a council,” she said during a Senate hearing of the Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation on the ELCAC Act.

“And because I am a scholar, I am willing to change my mind. I forgot there is a sunset clause there and yes, it would render itself obsolescent when the reason for its being would have been obliterated, so I am willing to change my mind. For the record, I am withdrawing what I earlier articulated,” she added.

Earlier in the hearing, Carlos pointed out that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. wants to streamline bureaucracy and restructure the government.

According to her, the proposal will be a contest of jurisdiction and waste of resources.

“Given these prefatory remarks, I believe that it is not in order to institutionalize the NTF-ELCAC into a council,” she said.

In response, Dela Rosa said the purpose of the bill is to ensure that anti-insurgency efforts will always be present in the government regardless of the new policy of the president.

“Kung hindi natin ito i-institutionalize, magbago man ang isip ng president…mag-shift man ang policy niya, i-defunct yung task force. Pero kapag ito ay institutionalized, nandyan na yan, hindi na yan basta-basta snub-in ng pangulo dahil may batas na tayo,” he said.

(If we will not institutionalize this, if ever the president changes his mind or policy, the task force will be defunct. But if institutionalized, it is already here, he cannot snub it because we already have a law.)

The NTF-ELCAC has attracted controversy due to its red-tagging of schools, students, organizations and critics of the government. Red-tagging is the act of accusing an entity of affiliation with communist rebels and/or terrorism. The task force rejects the term and says it is only telling the truth. — BM, GMA News