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“Such actions should be taken as examples on how courts should address in a relevant and timely manner the particular risks to life, security and liberty of human rights defenders.”
“While a law penalizing red-tagging is welcome, the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act violates our basic human rights, including the right to a free press.”
Colleagues of Bayan's Lutgardo "Boyette" Jurcales Jr. and Dutch lay missionary Otto De Vries said the two have dedicated their lives serving the marginalized and the poor. One has been charged with fabricated charges, while the other is being kicked out of the country.
“The recklessness in making such inaccurate and inconsistent public pronouncements causes not only damage to the reputation of those identified, but also weakens the credibility of the government in safeguarding the security of the State. To earn the trust and confidence of the people, they must prove the legitimacy of their means used in gathering information and the credibility of their evidence.”
“So while we are debunking red-tagging and all the baseless allegations being hurled against progressive lawmakers, we were able to come up with a pandemic response bill, the pandemic paid leave bill, and even the law on solo parents was signed.” -- Gabriela Women's Party Rep. Arlene Brosas
“Teachers have been clamoring for the grant and release of benefits and salary increases for months, but all we get is a slow and tight-lipped response in return. But when it comes to red-tagging, the DepEd managed to issue a memo?”
IADL President Jeanne Mirer said the attacks on Filipino lawyers are in violation of international law including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers, the Convention against Torture and even of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, among others.
Cordillera People's Alliance and Bolinget’s family fear for his safety, noting that he can be subjected to a “tokhang-style execution” if he gets arrested and transported to Davao Del Norte for his case.
“Complainants have been targeted for their critical and independent reporting on issues affecting the marginalized and oppressed sectors. They are being persecuted for publishing progressive and alternative views on matters affecting the Filipino people — progressive ideas that are anathema to the current tyrannical regime.”
“How many more people need to suffer the fate of the dozens of individuals killed – red-tagged as terrorists and then end up dead? Health frontliners like them who rendered invaluable service and sacrifice especially during the pandemic were not only exposed to a deadly virus but to a dangerous political environment."
Dr. Sancelan, Guihulngan's city health officer and head of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), was included in the hitlist circulated by anti-communist vigilante group Kagubak last year.
"Her abduction, on Human Rights Day no less, is another proof of the dangers of the administration’s vile practice of red-tagging."
Teddy Casiño of Bayan said the Duterte administration is the "number one human rights violator."
"The complainants bring the instant action in order to finally address a continuing wrong, to vindicate their basic rights, and to remind public officials that illegal, improper, unjust and oppressive acts and utterances, especially those vicious and virulent, are not without consequence. We also just want to do our work as lawyers,” the complaint read.
The red-taggers’ mantra “If you are not with us, you are against us” is so skewed and illogical. The media’s role is to serve as a watchdog of wrongdoings especially by those in power.
The complaint said the red-tagging of Cristina Palabay, Karapatan and its members and officers by the respondents violates the principle of distinction under international and domestic humanitarian law.
For the Makabayan bloc and other progressive organizations, the recently concluded Senate hearing on red-tagging will be used by state security forces as a justification to declare them as terrorists under the Anti-Terror Law.
Advocacy group Pilgrims for Peace declared that the state’s penchant for red and terror-tagging “not only further exacerbates the human rights crisis in the Philippines, but it worrisomely undermines peace efforts.”
President Duterte’s people need to get their act together and stop this game of putting innocent people’s lives and security at stake.
It seems that time is up for reckoning on the crude, arrogant and irresponsible red-tagging campaign, waged mainly by the military and police at the behest of the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Confict or NTF-ELCAC. Created and nominally...
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