NTF-ELCAC ready to file response on Cordillera activists’ plea

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Tuesday said it is prepared to file the necessary response to the petition filed by Cordillera activists with the Supreme Court.

“We, the NTF-ELCAC thru the LCC, are prepared to file the necessary responsive pleading unless sooner dismissed by the Court,” Atty. Joss Serios, NTF-ELCAC Legal Cooperation Cluster spokesperson, said in a statement.

This came after 24 activists in the Cordillera Administrative Region filed a petition asking the Hight Court to reconsider the dismissal of their plea for writ of amparo, which was upheld by the Court of Appeals.

The activists, members of the Cordillera People’s Alliance, said they were red-tagged through social media posts and subjected to surveillance and baseless charges by state forces in the region.

The petitioners said state forces would also encamp within indigenous villages, residential houses, and occupied civilian facilities such as dap-ay and barangay hall buildings. — Joahna Lei Casilao/RSJ, GMA Integrated News