UN rapporteur’s ELCAC abolition call gets backlash
Senator Ronald dela Rosa on Thursday called out United Nations Special Rapporteur Ian Fry for suggesting the abolition of the country’s anti-insurgency task force as he expressed his strong disagreement with the statement.
This comes as Fry said that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict is “operating with impunity.”
The lawmaker defended the NTF-ELCAC was created to address gaps within government and people.
“That is why we are in quandary right now… NTF-ELCAC is all about good governance and delivery of basic services to the communities and they are not involved in armed confrontation with the enemies of the state,” Dela Rosa said.
“Why are they lambasting the NTF-ELCAC? Maybe they are being fed with wrong information,” he added.
The senator also believes that Fry may have been misinformed by the leftist groups about the works of the NTF-ELCAC.
Fry was on a 10-day visit to the Philippines several meetings with different civil society organizations and government officials to talk about the country’s climate change policies when he made the recommendation to “disband” the government’s anti-insurgency task force.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said Fry’s report must be “deemed incomplete” and he should have raised his human rights concerns directly with the NTF-ELCAC officials.
“Fry, in his capacity as a UNSR on a country visit, has been given the freedom to move and inquire on matters related to his mandate. But apparently, due to reasons beyond us, he has not exercised this to its full potential,” Año said.
“In the interest of fairness and justice, he should have raised his concerns with us to ensure that he has full appreciation of the body’s mandate, operations, and overall directions,” he added.
Año assured Fry that NTF-ELCAC “is a working and effective human rights mechanism founded on the principles of good and inclusive governance and we could have helped him define it in his study.”
The national security adviser also stressed that the government could have provided Fry “valuable inputs on how ow the NTF-ELCAC has brought peace and development in far-flung communities.”
“Reiterating that Fry has had a very limited time in his visit, we extend an open invitation to him for a dialogue in the near future before he finalizes his report. We would consider his acceptance of this offer as an indication to truly preserve the integrity of his mandate to engage States on matters of human rights in an inclusive, impartial, and non-discriminatory manner,” Año said.