NTF-ELCAC Stands with COMELEC: Shielding Youth from Exploitation and Violent Radicalization

October 29, 2025

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) welcomes the Commission on Elections’ decision to proceed with the hearing of the disqualification case against Kabataan Partylist. This recent development supports the government’s broader commitment to safeguard young Filipinos from the risks of radicalization and to promote true, meaningful youth participation in the country’s democratic institutions.

This case has been pending before the COMELEC and rests on its own evidentiary foundation, including testimonies from former members and Communist Party of the Philippines–New People’s Army–National Democratic Front cadres, public records, and documented links to organizations affiliated with the insurgent group. It is not, as Rep. Renee Co claims, an “order from Malacañang,” but part of the regular process that guarantees fairness, transparency, and accountability under our democratic system.

NTF-ELCAC deeply respects the independence of the COMELEC and recognizes its mandate to ensure that only qualified groups participate in the partylist system. Contrary to Kabataan’s narrative, no persecution but due process is at work here.

What is disturbing is the attempt to frame this hearing as “dictatorship revived.” This is a recycled script meant to divert attention from legitimate questions about Kabataan’s continued association with groups that justify or enable violence. No one is being silenced for speaking out. But when political participation becomes a convenient mask for subversion, it is the duty of the state to act.

It bears repeating that activism is not the issue. The Party-List System Act clearly provides that organizations which advocate or support armed rebellion may be disqualified from elections. The petition before the COMELEC simply asks whether Kabataan still represents the youth or whether it has allowed itself to become a conduit for the same underground movement that has exploited and radicalized young Filipinos for decades.

If Kabataan truly believes in democracy, it must also believe in the independence of the COMELEC, not only when the poll body’s rulings favor their allies, but also when accountability calls their own actions to question.

As the task force has often said, genuine youth activism is vital to democracy. We have no quarrel with young people who demand good governance, transparency, and reform. But we must also draw a clear moral line between activism that builds versus radicalism that destroys. The tragic deaths of so many young leaders, most of whom are members of Kabataan-affiliate organizations, who were killed in an armed encounter after joining the NPA, is a grim reminder of how deception turns conviction into casualty.

The government’s vigilance is not oppression. It is protection of the Filipino youth whose passion for change is being manipulated by those who romanticize “people’s war.” We defend the right of every Filipino to speak, to dissent, and to organize, but we, along with the rest of the nation, reject the exploitation of those rights to revive the communist armed insurgency.

NTF-ELCAC places full confidence in the COMELEC and its commissioners. We trust that the proceedings will be guided solely by law and evidence, and not by the noisy politics of those who fear exposure.

The disqualification hearing is not about silencing the youth. It is about protecting them, and ensuring that representation in Congress remains a privilege of those who uphold peace, not those who betray it.

Undersecretary Ernesto C Torres Jr

Executive Director

NTF ELCAC