NTF-ELCAC Condemns CPP-NPA “Spy-Tagging” Killings; Dares Makabayan Bloc to Denounce Atrocities

November 21, 2025

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has issued its strongest condemnation yet of the Communist Party of the Philippines–New People’s Army (CPP–NPA) and its renewed wave of “spy-tagging” killings—describing the practice as “a death sentence imposed without truth, trial, or humanity” and calling out groups that refuse to denounce the executions of unarmed civilians.

“Spy-tagging is the CPP–NPA’s most convenient weapon. It is not discipline. It is not revolution. It is murder," said NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Usec. Ernesto C. Torres Jr.

In a statement, Torres stressed that the recent killings in Negros, where at least 15 farmers, barangay officials, and residents have been summarily executed since early 2024, expose the communist terrorist group’s continuing pattern of terror and community control.

“These people were not combatants,” Torres said. “They were fathers, mothers, youth, workers—ordinary community members whose only ‘crime’ was being arbitrarily labeled as ‘military assets’ by a terrorist organization desperate to maintain influence through fear," he added.

Torres noted that the atrocities in Negros mirror the CPP–NPA’s infamous purge campaigns—Kampanyang Ahos, Operation Missing Link, Project Olympia, Oplan Zombie, and Kadena de Amor—where thousands were tortured and killed after being falsely accused of espionage. The pattern, he said, remains unchanged: “Accuse, isolate, and kill.”

The NTF-ELCAC official also criticized certain left-leaning organizations and the Makabayan bloc for refusing to condemn the killings.

“For groups that loudly claim to champion human rights, their silence on the executions in Negros is deafening,” Torres said. “Silence is complicity. Their refusal to denounce the killings of farmers, barangay officials, and indigenous peoples exposes the hypocrisy behind their constant calls for justice.”

Torres emphasized that the killings cannot be dismissed as internal matters of the communist movement. “These are crimes against the Filipino people. No community should ever be forced to live under the shadow of communist violence," he pointed out.

He urged local governments, civil society organizations, youth groups, academe, religious institutions, and the media to collectively condemn the atrocities and resist efforts to normalize the CPP–NPA’s purge-style executions.

“For more than fifty years, the communist movement has used deception, ideological manipulation, and fear to justify murder,” Torres said. “It must stop. The Filipino people deserve safety, dignity, and the full protection of the law.”

Torres renewed the call for remaining NPA members to abandon armed struggle and avail themselves of government reintegration programs, warning that those who continue to commit crimes will be held fully accountable.

“End the lies. Stop the killings. Protect our people,” Torres declared.