section_path: Presidency (2016–2022)/Domestic policy/Communist insurgency
section_name: Communist insurgency
paragraph_text: Communist insurgency
  
  Duterte described himself as left-leaning during his presidential campaign. As he initially had good relations with the left, he received campaign support from leftist groups, particularly in Mindanao. Duterte was a student of Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison at Lyceum of the Philippines University, and Sison stated during the election campaign that Duterte was "the best President the Philippines can have since Marcos".
  
  Upon Duterte's election into office, prospects of restarting peace talks between the Philippine government and the CPP- NPA - NDF, which stalled in 2011, gained momentum. Duterte temporarily released several communist prisoners, notably couples CPP-NPA chairman Benito and CPP-NPA secretary-general Wilma Tiamzon, to join the peace talks in Oslo. In addition, Duterte offered positions for left-leaning activists in his administration, notably in four executive departments: Agrarian Reform, Environment and Natural Resources, Social Welfare and Development, and Labor and Employment. In the months leading to 2017, however, the Duterte administration and the CPP accused each other of not being faithful to the ongoing peace negotiations. The CPP demanded from the administration the release of around 130 political detainees, which—along proposals of the CPP to form a "coalition government"— Duterte declined. Additionally, several leftists appointed by Duterte were rejected by the Commission on Appointments, while others resigned or were fired by Duterte amidst the tense relations. Compounding these were the continued clashes between the military and the NPA and the alternate declaration and lifting of ceasefire amid the ongoing peace talks;
  
  On February 6, 2017, Duterte, citing continued attacks by the NPA on the military, formally terminated peace negotiations with the CPP-NPA-NDF, designated them as a terrorist organization and ordered the arrest of all NDF negotiators. Through an executive order he issued in December 2018, Duterte established the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), an inter-agency body that involved a whole-of-nation approach —from the national to local level— in addressing the root causes of communism. The NTF-ELCAC worked in close coordination with the military and focused on developing far-flung localities infiltrated by the NPA. Duterte also granted amnesty to former communist rebels and launched reintegration programs to support them and their families. Ultimately, in March 2019, he permanently terminated peace negotiations with the CPP-NPA-NDF, facilitating localized peace talks with the rebels.
  
  Duterte left office with the number of NPA guerrilla fronts in the country reduced from 89 to 23, and about 20,579 communist rebels reportedly surrendered from 2016 to 2021. Despite its success in reducing communist insurgency in the country, Duterte's administration was marred by numerous allegations of red-tagging, notably the left-leaning Makabayan Bloc; Duterte and the military dismissed the red-tagging accusations and argued the government was merely "identifying" them as communist fronts. Duterte also received criticism after he threatened to order the military in mid-2017 to bomb Lumad schools, which he and the military suspected to shelter rebels and teach subversion. Additionally, the military and the NTF-ELCAC were denounced after they cited clandestine recruitment activities by the communist rebels within university campuses nationwide, notably in both state-run University of the Philippines and Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Several human rights organizations called on the succeeding Bongbong Marcos administration to abolish the NTF-ELCAC due to continued red-tagging allegations; the calls, however, were rejected by Marcos.