This article, sent today by PBCI Board Chair Emil Jonathan L. Soriano to Bishop Noel Alba Pantoja, critically examines the participation of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) in the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). While the task force promotes a “whole-of-nation approach” to peace and development, its record of red-tagging and militarized posture has made it a controversial institution within the peacebuilding community. Drawing from field-based perspectives of peace practitioners, civil society critiques, and academic literature on faith-based peacebuilding, this essay analyzes the opportunities and risks inherent in PCEC’s engagement with NTF-ELCAC. The paper argues that while PCEC’s involvement presents a possibility for moral oversight and community engagement, it also carries the dangers of co-optation, erosion of prophetic distance, and complicity in harmful state practices. The analysis concludes by proposing conditions under which faith actors may engage state programs while safeguarding ethical commitments to human rights and civilian protection.
