VP Sara Duterte named NTF-Elcac co-vice chairperson

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also the concurrent Education secretary, will wear another hat after being designated as the co-vice chairperson of the government’s anticommunist task force.

National Security Adviser Eduardo Año on Wednesday announced the designation of Duterte as a top official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac).

Año said this was announced during the executive committee meeting with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin in Malacanang Palace.

“The NTF-Elcac Execom (executive committee) has approved the designation of Vice President and Department of Education Secretary Sara Duterte as Co-Vice Chairperson of the task force,” Año said during a Palace press briefing.

“Her unstinting commitment to the cause of NTF-Elcac will undoubtedly be very valuable to the Task Force and we thank her for accepting the challenge,” Año added.

Duterte also attended the said meeting, which she deemed to be a “show of force.”

“This is a show of force — a clear, strong, and powerful statement and warning — against the enemies of the state who slaughter civilians, abduct and murder and execute members our security forces, and attempt to pin down our progress as a nation through their ideals anchored on brainwashing, fear, and terrorism,” Duterte was quoted as saying in a Twitter post during the meeting.

Meanwhile, Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of left-wing human rights alliance Karatapan, slammed Duterte’s designation, which she said “reinforces the fascist character of the taskforce.”

“It only shows the greater need for the abolition of this task force that has been responsible for numerous cases of human rights violations,” Palabay added.

gsg / JPV