‘Red-tagging is an attack against democracy’

Activists assert that red-tagging or terror tagging made by government officials and other state agents endangers the lives of their colleagues, lawyers and all those who are critical of the government. Many reports have also shown that red-tagged activists were slapped with trumped-up charges, or worse get killed or disappeared.

By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – “Red-tagging will never be part of democracy.”

This is the reaction of House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro on the statement of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla during the 136th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee last Oct. 10 where he said that red-tagging is part of democracy.

Castro clarifies that “red-tagging is part of a tyrannical rule and a dictatorship where the people are silenced and are criminalized by those in power.”

She added that it is used against citizens who are “pushing for legitimate demands of the people for adequate salary increase, security of tenure, lower prices of basic goods and commodities, and accessible social services.”

Activists assert that red-tagging or terror tagging made by government officials and other state agents endangers the lives of their colleagues, lawyers and all those who are critical of the government. Many reports have also shown that red-tagged activists were slapped with trumped-up charges, or worse get killed or disappeared.

Read: How red-tagging justifies human rights abuses
Read: Red-tagging constitutes human rights violation — CHR Cordillera

But government officials committing such acts continue to deny this and even call it “truth tagging.”

Read: Truth-tagging? | Courts junk cases vs red-tagged activists, peace consultants

Report of then United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet also said that the government needs to “halt dangerous rhetoric.”

“Saying that red-tagging is part of democracy by no less than the justice secretary is a dangerous sign for the Filipino people who have been continuously attacked by state forces for opposing anti-people policies,” Castro said.

Progressive women’s group Gabriela meanwhile said that red-tagging and terrorist-labelling “have repeatedly been exposed as a vile government tactic to justify crackdown on critics and violation of peoples’ rights, rendering it a tool for repression and not democracy.”

Gabriela pointed out that rights violations against women grew in number and gravity since its 2017 submission of an alternative report to the UN’s Universal Periodic Review.

“Many of these cases were preceded by relentless red-tagging that ran rampant with impunity under then President Rodrigo Duterte, and continues on in the current administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and VP Sara Duterte,” the group said in a statement.

The group said that this year, five women leaders were added to the list of more than a hundred women political detainees in the country. They are:

  • Maritess Pielago, 63, Bicolana-Gabriela’s chairperson who was illegally arrested while admitted to a hospital in Naga City;
  • Adora Faye de Vera, 68, a survivor of torture and other forms of abuse under Marcos Sr.’s martial law, who was arrested in her home in Quezon City;
  • Atel Hijos, 76, a known pillar of the Philippine women’s movement was arrested in Butuan City;
  • Lenilyn Jaynos, 45, who was arrested while seeking refuge at Gabriela’s shelter for women in crisis in Roxas City which led to her subsequent arrest; and
  • Kara Taggaoa, 25, International Officer of the Kilusang Mayo Uno who was arrested last Oct. 10, after her arraignment for a different trumped up case against her.

 

“All five of whom have been subjected to incessant red-tagging committed by state forces, a practice which worsened since the enactment of the Executive Order 70 in 2019 and the Anti-Terrorism Act in 2020,” the group said.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay meanwhile reminded Remulla that the Commission on Human Rights, in its report on the public inquiry regarding the situation of human rights defenders, said that “red-tagging results in the public stigmatization and delegitimization of dissent and constitutes a grave threat to the lives, security and liberty of human rights defenders.”

“The CHR also called on the members of the executive branch of government to desist from red-tagging and labelling defenders as terrorists or enemies of the state and to prohibit the nefarious practice,” Palabay said.

Palabay asserted that red-tagging, “especially by State forces and their adjuncts has dire consequences on persons, families, organizations and communities – killings, arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, torture, enforced disappearances and more.”

“Feigning ignorance on these consequences and packaging these threats as mere exercise of freedom of expression are clear signals of a policy of tolerance for human rights violations and impunity,” she added. (RTS, RVO) (https://www.bulatlat.org)

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