LET’S TALK about this seemingly never-ending insurgency problem that has plagued our country for more than half a century.
Let’s zero in on what I believe is the main reason this insurgency never seems to run out of “cannon fodder” — or, as Vladimir Lenin famously called them, “useful idiots.”
Here’s a perfect example of one such “useful idiot” in action:
During the September 21 Trillion Peso March — while the taongbayan were calling for accountability from the House of Representatives over alleged corruption in the 2025 General Appropriations Act — Kabataan Party-list’s Rep. Rainee Co chose that very moment to call for the defunding and abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
That, one must admit, was awkward, cringe-worthy, and completely out of place.
Contrary to popular belief, the root cause of the insurgency is not the government’s supposed failure to provide basic social services or livelihood in far-flung barangays. That narrative has long been addressed by the Whole-of-Nation Approach and the Barangay Development Program under the NTF-ELCAC — despite relentless efforts by the so-called Makabayan bloc and their allies in Congress to defund this important task force.
What truly keeps this insurgency alive is the influence of misguided and restless youth — particularly those in universities who fancy themselves as “woke.” Lacking direction in life but brimming with hormones, these young people are easily manipulated by their aging professors to live out their revolutionary fantasies by pushing an obsolete and irrelevant ideology: communism.
Ironically, it’s an ideology long abandoned by the very nation that birthed it — in favor of capitalism.
It’s quite pathetic that these “useful idiots,” who find it trendy and fashionable to support insurgents, don’t even realize that the democratic space and freedom they now enjoy would disappear the moment the CPP-NPA-NDF actually takes over.
Now, let’s move to another tired cliché in this decades-old insurgency: “red-tagging.” It has become the preferred “victim card” of the usual suspects and pseudo-communists whenever they’re caught with their knickers down.
During the RP–EU 5th Sub-Committee Meeting on Good Governance, Rule of Law, and Human Rights in Brussels, NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. clarified that there is no government policy of red-tagging in the Philippines. What critics call “red-tagging,” he said, is actually “truth-telling” — a necessary duty of government to protect communities, especially the youth, from deceptive recruitment and terrorist propaganda.
“Our security-vetted disclosures are a national security imperative, not vilification,” Torres emphasized. “When groups openly support armed insurgency, romanticize violence, and hypocritically condemn government missteps while ignoring their own atrocities against Filipinos, we have the moral and legal duty to expose them.”
It’s worth noting that the CPP-NPA-NDF is a designated terrorist organization under both Philippine and international law. Government disclosures linking individuals and front organizations to these groups are based on validated intelligence, sworn testimonies from former rebels, and years of security operations.
As I’ve said before, these CPP-NPA-NDF front organizations are not being “red-tagged” — they are simply being described accurately. Labeling hazardous substances, such as poisonous materials, is a public duty; warning society about terrorist recruiters is no different.
According to the NTF-ELCAC, terrorist fronts thrive by exploiting democratic space — infiltrating schools, workplaces, and communities under the guise of activism, only to radicalize and recruit vulnerable citizens, particularly the youth.
Calling this “red-tagging,” therefore, is a deliberately misleading attempt to discredit the government’s security-vetted disclosures. It is not an effort to silence dissent, but a necessary measure to protect democracy from those who exploit it to fund and fuel armed violence.
Meanwhile, Kabataan Party-list’s call to defund the Barangay Development Program (BDP) under the guise of an anti-corruption campaign is just another tired rhetoric from pseudo-communists seeking to malign a program that has already proven — beyond doubt — that peace and progress can take root in communities once exploited by the CPP-NPA-NDF.
Kabataan Party-list, “leave them kids alone.”/PN
