MANILA – On the last day of the campaign period for the 2025 midterm elections, May 10, multiple reports have surfaced attacking progressive candidates. These include threats in the form of mock coffins, death threats, and red-tagging of progressive partylist and senatorial candidates of Makabayan. Online disinformation, like fake government documents and news reports, is rampant. 

Bulatlat initially reported on May 10 that mock coffins were installed in Quezon City (Tomas Morato and Quezon Avenue); Daraga, Albay; San Jose del Monte, Bulacan; and San Isidro, Tarlac. Some caskets contained graphic photos of dead bodies.

With the escalating attacks, Bayan Muna Partylist filed a complaint with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) against these coordinated attacks and online disinformation campaigns. 

“The appearance of mock coffins with our names in Quezon City, Tarlac, Bulacan, Albay, and other areas, alongside this fake news campaign, reveals the desperate lengths to which our opponents will go to prevent the people’s voices from being heard in Congress,” said former Bayan Muna representative and first nominee Neri Colmenares in a statement.

Colmenares further emphasized that the attacks are not just random acts of misinformation but a black propaganda campaign on a national scale. “The fake documents, coffins, and money, and the red-tagging posters have one origin and objective: to prevent our progressive partylist from coming back to the Congress.”

Red-tagging remains the top reported election violation in the monitoring of Vote Report PH. As of May 10, they received 1,750 reports, with data highlighting red-tagging as the most reported category both in the online and onground landscape.

With the amount of money needed for such an operation, Kabataan Partylist first nominee Renee Co pointed out that the series of incidents is state-sponsored. “Only the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) has the budget and resources to conduct these kinds of attacks against the opposition candidates.”

She further noted that the same stunt was made during the anniversary of the New People’s Army in 2021, especially with the similarity of casket designs. “This is basically a death threat to critical voters. It sends a message that if they continue to support progressive partylist, they will die. It is an admission that red-tagging is life-threatening,” Co added.

Comelec has been urged to act and investigate these cases of red-tagging and disinformation. The threats progressive partylists are subjected to, are considered as an election offense in the Omnibus Election Code (OEC), supplemented by Comelec Resolution No. 11166 promulgated earlier this year, February 19.

Co said that in the last 90 days, red-tagging has been rampant but no one has been held accountable. 

“The youth expects that the attacks and fraud will further intensify on the day of election. They may cheat us, but we will not be defeated,” she said.

The International Observers Mission (IOM) of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) raised concerns on the prevalence of red-tagging as the top campaign violation. The objective of their mission is to monitor all elections-related human rights violations in the Philippines.

“Swaying people from casting their vote for any candidates through fear, intimidation, and disinformation campaigns is the opposite of a fair, free, clean and honest election process,” ICHRP stated in its mission report, adding that “Red-tagging silences those discussions by trying to discredit, through misinformation and harassment, proposals for reforms and people-centered solutions.” (RTS, RVO)