MANILA, Philippines — The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Sunday called out the Makabayan bloc and its allied organizations for their lack of public response to sexual assault allegations involving a leader of the Kabataan Partylist.

In a statement, NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Undersecretary Ernesto C. Torres Jr. said the bloc’s silence was “unconscionable,” especially given its history of publicly condemning injustices.

“For a bloc that screams murder for even the slightest perception of injustice, real or imagined, the Makabayan bloc and all its allied partylists and organizations’ deafening silence in the face of sexual assault allegations against a Kabataan Partylist leader is unconscionable,” Torres said.

According to the statement, the survivor, identified as Maria Kara and a former Kabataan member, made a public disclosure after internal reporting mechanisms failed to hold the accused accountable. Only then, NTF-ELCAC said, did Kabataan Partylist release a statement claiming the matter was being handled internally and that it would assist her in filing a case.

“A move clearly meant to save face because the issue could no longer be ignored,” Torres said.

The task force also raised concerns about internal accountability mechanisms within the Makabayan bloc, drawing comparisons to alleged practices in the underground operations of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

“Sexual abuse and coercion are not new in NPA units, where cases are typically buried in ‘rectification’ processes or hushed up through ‘criticism and self-criticism.’ Justice is never the goal—damage control is, in the name of the ‘people’s war,’” Torres said. “What’s happening now in Kabataan is a mirror of that underground culture. The mango does not fall far from the tree.”

The task force cited the 2024 United Nations Secretary-General’s report on Children and Armed Conflict in the Philippines, which verified a case involving two 15-year-old girls allegedly abducted and recruited by the NPA, one of whom was raped by a member of the group. The report noted such cases are “vastly under-reported.”

NTF-ELCAC also pointed to a separate case in April, where pastors from the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) and the Kalinaw Southeast Mindanao Region (SEMR) assisted a Lumad woman in filing rape charges against a CPP cadre. The first incident reportedly happened when she was 14 years old at UCCP Haran in Davao City. Torres said the incident was reported to local organizations, including Gabriela-SMR and Kabataan Partylist, but no legal action was taken.

“Failing to condemn the rape of one of their own, just as they fail to recognize the deaths of youth recruits in the NPA’s armed struggle as a tragedy rather than something to be romanticized, suggests something far more sinister than mere silence,” he said. “It has become systemic and a normalization of abuse and exploitation of our youth in the name of the so-called national democratic revolution.”

Torres said survivors are often discouraged from speaking out and are expected to endure abuse in the name of “political work.”

“Young recruits are told to get over ‘unnecessary sacrifices,’ including sexual assault because there is urgent political work to be done. Survivors are silenced with the mantra of ‘democratic centralism,’ warned not to question internal processes even when their human rights are being trampled,” he said. “Whether underground or aboveground, whether armed cadre or youth volunteer, the expectation is clear: accountability is demanded only from the state.”

Torres called out what he described as “hypocrisy” within Makabayan-aligned groups.

“The rot from within is not just about their role as the umbilical cord of the urban armed struggle. That is something they conveniently brush off as ‘red-tagging.’ No, the rot lies in the sheer hypocrisy—in the way they loudly demand justice from others but grow mute when the crime emanates from their very own recruiters, organizers, and leaders,” he said.

The NTF-ELCAC official urged young people within and outside Makabayan-affiliated groups to continue demanding accountability.

“We hear the voices of many young people, current and former members of Makabayan-allied groups alike, who are speaking out online and in their communities against this injustice. We urge them to continue to demand justice not just in their organizations, but in the proper legal forums,” Torres said.

He also assured the survivor of the government’s support.

“To Ms. Kara—rest assured, the government will stand by you. Not to score points or to humiliate your abusers, but because this is what a genuine democratic system does,” he said.

He ended by criticizing the bloc’s response to the controversy.

“The Makabayan bloc’s post-election mantra in the face of the Filipino people’s resounding rejection is to continue—‘tuloy ang laban’—in the face of their indirect complicity in sexual assault might just as well be ‘ituloy ang silence,’” Torres said.

The offices involved have yet to release a statement as of press time.