MANILA — A human rights group and an election watchdog warned the public to be wary of candidates with records of red-tagging and rights violations. 

“The common denominator of these candidates is their direct hand in the atrocities committed against the Filipino people. We appeal to the people not to vote for these human rights violators,” said Cristina Palabay, human rights group Karapatan’s secretary general. 

Election watchdog Kontra Daya, on the other hand, flagged 18 party-list groups with police and military connections. Among these party-lists are:

• Epanaw Sambayanan: This party-list is flagged due to its nominees who are known red-taggers. Lorraine Badoy is the second nominee, who served as one of the spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). The third nominee is Jeffrey Celiz, who has previously red-tagged activists and leaders in national television through Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI). Its fourth nominee Joel A. Unad, who, according to PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao Region, is a “fake tribal leader who claims thousands of hectares through faulty Certificate of Ancestral Domain Titles (CADT)”.
• Magsasaka (fourth faction under the leadership of King M. Cortez): This party-list is flagged due to its fourth nominee, Debold Sinas, who is known for the human rights violations under the Oplan Sauron. This internal security program caused extra-judicial killings of civilians in the name of counter-insurgency. Oplan Sauron stemmed from Memorandum Order No. 32 of former president Rodrigo Duterte and enforced on November 2018 to suppress “lawless violence in the provinces of Samar, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and the Bicol Region.” After the series of killings, Sinas was appointed chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) by Duterte.

Karapatan also identified the Duterte Youth Party-list as a group engaged in red-tagging, stating that its nominees have affiliations with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and security institutions. 

Other flagged party-lists are BG Party-list, Frontliners Party-list, and Magsasaka (fourth faction) Party-list, which Karapatan said have records of red-tagging, instigation of trumped-up charges against activists, supported policies such as the reinstatement of the death penalty and the continuation of the anti-drug campaign launched by former President Rodrigo Duterte.

Beyond party-lists, several senatorial candidates were also identified by rights groups for their alleged involvement in state-backed repression:

• Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go – Both served during the Duterte administration and played key roles in the government’s anti-drug campaign, which was linked to the thousands of extra-judicial killings.
• Imee Marcos – The daughter of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., whose administration was marked by human rights abuses and corruption.
• Apollo Quiboloy – A religious leader on the wanted list of the US’s FBI and is facing criminal charges, including human trafficking and sex abuse, and an ally of Duterte. 

• Allen Capuyan – A former military intelligence officer and NTF-ELCAC official who has been accused by rights groups of red-tagging activists.
• Rodante Marcoleta – A lawmaker who voted to deny the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN, the country’s largest broadcasting network, and has pushed to reduce the budget of the Commission on Human Rights.
• Norberto Gonzales – A former defense chief under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose presidency was marked with over a thousand extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

Karapatan noted that the involvement of these candidates in the party-list groups and senatorial race could worsen the impunity that victims of rights violations are suffering from. 

“We ask the public to be vigilant against the lies and deceptions that these candidates will spread during the campaign period,” said Palabay.

In November last year, the Commission on Elections promised to issue guidelines against red-tagging.  (RTS, RVO)