“It is not just the journalist that can benefit from this, but also others who have been red-tagged in social media by anonymous media accounts. What this case will do is to surface that, to actually know who is doing this evil thing so we can take action.”
Bulatlat interviewed Bishop Gerardo Alminaza as he shared his thoughts on red-tagging and his mission as a shepherd in one of the country’s most militarized dioceses.
“As we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, I couldn’t think of a better way that the Philippine government could show its value, its worth, than adopting and implementing this act. It definitely would show commitment to the work of human rights defenders.”
Among the cases the workers brought to the attention of the labor department is the harassment against Jaime Paglinawan, and several other workers rights advocates, whose photos appeared in a Facebook post, with a note that read, “they are the root cause of violence in our society.”
By MAX SANTIAGO
In the Philippines, victims of rights violations face dead ends as they turn to the Office of the Ombudsman for justice and redress.
The NUPL has recorded a total of 262 work-related attacks in the past 15 years, including that of 86 lawyers, judges and prosecutors. Five of whom were members of the NUPL.
“The government is using the UN joint program, they say they are complying with the HRC resolution. We don’t want the international community to depend only on that because that is only a window dressing of the Philippine government.”
The UNHRC said they are concerned at the “reports of increased crackdowns, including in the context of the government’s counter-terrorism and anti-illegal drug operations, on human rights defenders, activists and other civil society actors to discourage them from carrying out their legitimate activities.”
“We gather to put a stop to repeated attempts by the NTF-ELCAC and other state agencies to sow terror, confusion, and intimidate our people into silence and inaction. We gather to stand as one with the people in their struggles for democracy, social justice and genuine peace.”
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said that the red-tagging has become bold and relentless in spreading lies and terror-tagging more individuals from the media, activists and critics.