Nilabag ni Badoy ang dalawang karapatang ginagarantiya ng Konstitusyon: ang due process at freedom of association
Maikli lamang ito dahil wala talaga kaming interes o gana pang pag-usapan si Badoy – si Lorraine Badoy.
Ano pa ba ang sasabihin tungkol sa reyna ng basura na puwedeng magtayo ng kastilyo ala Disney princess na si Elsa, ‘yun nga lang sa Smokey Mountain o Payatas? Teka, makapag-takip ng ilong dahil nangangalingasaw na naman.
As of last count, anim na reklamo na ang naisampa laban sa red-tagger at fake news peddler na si Badoy, dating undersecretary at ngayo’y spokesperson ng National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). Kulang pa nga ‘yan pero malaking pasasalamat sa mga overworked lawyers na may ginintuang puso.
Dagdag sa pinakabagong reklamo sa Ombudsman ang reklamo ng IBON, rights group na Karapatan, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, at Kabataan.
Sabi ng opinion piece ni dating congressman Teddy Casiño, kung gagamitin ang lohika ni Badoy, lahat ng organisasyon na tumutuligsa sa gobyerno, puwedeng ituring na terrorist front.
Correction lang Ginoong Casiño: walang lohikang taglay si Badoy. Meron siyang vitriol, hate, malevolence. Kung may katumbas siyang kemikal, ito’y muriatic acid. Bagay lang siya sa inidoro.
Kaya’t sa alternative world ni Badoy, si Vice President Leni Robredo ay supporter ng Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), kahit walang katiting na ebidensiya. Mema lang.
Bayani niya ang “berdugong” si Jovito Palparan, ang hinatulang guilty sa pagkawala ng dalawang UP students.
Ang fact-checkers na Rappler at Vera Files ay kaalyado rin ng mga komunista dahil finact-check siya. Ni-red-tag niya ang CNN Philippines dahil inilathala ang relief efforts ng estudyanteng grupo na League of Filipino Students (LFS). Ni-red-tag din niya ang College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), na organisasyon ng campus journalists.
Tulad ng sinabi ng National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), nilabag ni Badoy ang dalawang karapatang ginagarantiya ng Konstitusyon: ang due process at freedom of association.
Eto pa, pati si Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong ay nired-tag niya dahil ipinabaklas ni Magalong ang mga tarpaulin sa Baguio na nagre-red tag sa mga aktibista, estudyante, at media sa Northern Luzon.
Psst, Badoy, vice chair ng NTF-ELCAC si Magalong. ‘Yan ang napala ni Magalong sa pagsanib sa kulto niyo ni Antonio Parlade na nagsabing trabaho ni Satanas ang paglago ng community pantries. Bakit kulto? Dahil hindi na kayo naaabot ng lohika, katuwiran, fairness, o kahit common sense man lang.
Si Parlade at Badoy ang modern day incarnation ng witch hunter na si Joseph McCarthy na nagpakulong ng mga hinihinalang komunistang kawani ng US government, mga personalidad sa unibersidad, at mga artista noong dekada ‘50 dahil espiya raw sila ng USSR noon. Sila rin ang modernong bersiyon ng mga Puritan sa Salem Witch Trials noong 1600s.
Si Badoy rin ang nagsabing ang salitang “red-tagging” at “Lumad” ay imbento ng mga pulang grupo. Mali. Ang red-tagging ay ginagamit na sa International Humanitarian Law at mga pahayagan bago pa itinatag ang CPP noong 1968.
Ang Lumad naman ay isang Visayan term na nangangahulugang “native” o “indigenous.” Sinimulan itong gamitin ng mga katutubo noong June 1986.
‘Yun nga lang, for all her efforts na umeksena, wala pa ring Wikipedia page si Badoy, ‘di tulad ng isa pang fake news purveyor na si Mocha Uson. Pero tingnan niya kung nasaan na si Uson ngayon? Nagsasayaw pa rin sa entablado ‘pag eleksiyon para sa mga pulitikong tumatakbo, imbes na siya ang sinasayawan.
Ang reklamo sa Ombudsman ay sa paulit-ulit na paglabag ni Badoy sa Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees dahil siya ay isang public official.
Dalawang bagay ang hinihingi ng mga nagreklamo: Imbestigahan siya at sampahan ng nararapat na kaso, at isuspende hanggang katapusan ng termino ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte.
Alam nating weaponized ang batas sa Pilipinas at ginagamit laban sa mga kritiko ni Duterte tulad ni Leila de Lima, ABS-CBN, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa, Rappler, at marami pang mga kritiko.
Panahon nang magsilbi ang batas sa pagbabalik ng katuwiran at pagpaparusa sa mga lumalason ng malayang diskurso sa social media. Panahon nang mabawasan ang mga pollutant ng ating hangin. Dapat nang mabigyang leksiyon ang mga nambababoy ng katotohanan, lalo na ang mga pinapasuweldo ng taumbayan.
“It make sense naman ang dahilan ng ilan sa mga Pilipino na OK lang na iboto yung kinukwestyon ng iba diyan.
Una, marami talaga ang naghihirap sa Pilipinas, marami ang nagugutom, marami ang walang trabaho at walang lupa. Dahil walang industriyalisasyon, walang tunay na reporma sa lupa at wala naman talagang makabuluhang programa sa ekonomiya.
Matagal na itong problema ng ating lipunan, kaya nga mayroong armadong pakikibaka na inilunsad ng CPP-NPA-NDF na hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa nagagapi.
Pero siyempre hindi katanggap-tanggap ng malawak na masang Pilipino ang ganitong pamamaraan o sistema ng lipunan. Obvious naman kung bakit, hindi na kailangan i-explain yan dahil sa obvious din na kadahilanan.
Pero yun nga ang tanong, bakit ba si Marcos at Sara. At sa kabilang panig ay bakit si Leni at Kiko?
IIsa ang kapansin pansin na sagoit ng masang botante: gusto nila ng maunlad na bukas, maunlad na Pilipinas, nangunguna ang usapin ng ekonomiya (trabaho, sweldo, presyo ng bilihin, etc.)
Sa bahagi ng mga pro-Marcos at Sara ay matindi ang paninindigan na si BBM at Sara ang magdadala ng kaunlaran sa ekonomiya. Although ang battle call nila ay “unity: pagkakaisa”.
Sa bahagi ni Leni-Kiko ay may katulad din na pananaw: “Angat buhay lahat”. Pero ang kaibahan ay malinaw ang plataporma paano ito makakamit. Versus sa nagawa ng Tatay niya.
Sa totooo lang, sino bang kandidato sa pagka Presidente ang walang ganitong pangako? Lahat sila ay may pangako. Lahat ay aabutin at handa nilang gawin para sa ating boto.
Pero ang tanong kay BBM-Sara, ay ano ba talaga iyon? Maliban sa pagbanggit sa nagawa ng kanilang mga tatay?
Kung meron po kayong maipapaliwanag, handa kaming makinig. Kung meron nga, hindi “basta” o “respect opinion” lang.
Magpaliwanag po kayo ng mahinahon. UNITY ang battle call ninyo… BRING IT ON!”
MANILA, Philippines — A coalition of rights groups launched Tuesday a campaign to urge foreign governments to impose sanctions on President Rodrigo Duterte and other Philippine officials for allegedly violating human rights.
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines said in a statement that it will be working with the national governments of Australia, Canada, the US, the UK and the European Union for the imposition of Magnitsky sanctions on Philippine officials.
“In the absence so far of genuine accountability for these crimes through international mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court and the UN Human Rights Council, ICHRP is launching a global campaign under national Magnitsky Acts to hold those responsible accountable for these widely documented crimes,” it said.
Countries that have Magnitsky laws may impose punishment, ranging from travel bans to financial sanctions, on foreign nationals responsible for human rights violations or corruption in a foreign country.
The US was the first to enact a Magnitsky law in 2012, three years after Sergei Magnitsky, a tax advisor who exposed corruption among Russian government officials, died while in prison.
Aside from Duterte, the coalition is calling for sanctions on Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, both of whom ICHRP described as “architects of the war on drugs and campaign of state terror.”
When he was Philippine National Police chief, Dela Rosa spearheaded the anti-illegal drugs campaign called “Oplan Tokhang,” which led to the deaths of thousands of drug suspects.
ICHRP also wants foreign governments to impose sanctions on leaders of the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, including Gen. Debold Sinas, Gen. Jose Faustino Jr., Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana and Interior Sec. Eduardo Año.
Likewise, the ICHRP wants Sen. Bong Go, former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert and Lorraine Badoy sanctioned for being “part of the infrastructure of terror in the Duterte administration and participated in the public orchestration of alleged state repression.”
“In the absence of justice, in the absence of domestic and international accountability, the proposed Magnitsky measures would afford some level of justice for those guilty of these heinous crimes,” former Australian Sen. Lee Rhiannon said.
In 2019, the US enacted an entry ban on foreign government officials involved in the “wrongful imprisonment” of opposition Sen. Leila de Lima, who has been behind bars for five years over drug charges she said are trumped up.
But for these sanctions to be implemented, the US State Secretary, who was Mike Pompeo at the time, had to come out with a list of people who would be targeted by the ban. It is not known if Pompeo or his successor, Antony Blinken, has done this. — Xave Gregorio
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte should enjoy his 77th birthday on March 28 as “it might be his last outside a prison cell,” the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said Monday.
“In a few months, as soon as he steps down from his official term as Philippine President, the Filipino people will without a doubt demand that he be prosecuted for the countless crimes against humanity,” CPP chief information officer Marco Valbuena said in a statement.
“Whatever the outcome of the May elections, the Filipino people will surely raise their demand for Duterte to be immediately arrested and be made to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) or local courts where charges can be filed,” he added.
Valbuena noted that a special revolutionary people’s courts can be established to prosecute the chief executive.
“A special revolutionary people’s courts can also be formed which can order the arrest and prosecution of Duterte in order for him to face the Filipino people’s clamor for justice,” he said.
The ICC’s pre-trial chamber in September 2021 authorized the investigation into the alleged crimes against humanity against Duterte in connection with his bloody war on drugs.
The probe was then halted in November the same year after the Duterte administration asked the ICC to defer its investigation.
Valbuena said that the masses suffered under the president’s “campaign of mass murder,” among others, in the last six years.
Duterte will likewise be questioned for his alleged corruption, failure to defend the country’s marine resources, subservience to foreign economic interests, and allowing Chinese and United States forces to create military bases within the country’s territory, said Valbuena.
MANILA, Philippines — Impunity among perpetrators has provided the breeding ground for extrajudicial killings and human rights violations to flourish in the Philippines under the Duterte administration’s drug war, according to Amnesty International.
In its report for 2021 to 2022, the human rights watchdog also lamented that human rights defenders, political activists, and politicians were subjected to unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest and detention, and harassment.
“Lack of accountability continued to facilitate unlawful killings and other human rights violations under the government’s ‘war on drugs campaign,” AI stated.
Indigenous peoples were likewise targeted by attacks by authorities and unknown assailants, while inadequate access to healthcare “worsened” as COVID-19 infection rates rose, the report read.
“Extrajudicial executions and other human rights violations continued under the government’s ongoing ‘war on drugs. President Duterte continued to incite violence against people suspected of using or selling drugs,” it further said.
Meanwhile, the watchdog also lamented the Department of Justice’s review of just 52 “out of the thousands of cases involving killings by police during anti-drug operations.”
“Although the review was woefully inadequate and failed to meet international standards, its limited findings contradicted police claims that lethal force had been justified, and confirmed violations documented by local and international human rights groups,” the report read.
Amnesty International also lamented other issues including the suspension of the International Criminal Court’s investigation of alleged crimes against humanity, red-tagging, detention of Senator Leila De Lima, charges against journalist Maria Ressa, efforts to reimpose the death penalty, and the House of Representatives’ passage of a bill amending the Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002, among other concerns.
The watchdog pointed out that the bill “contained provisions that could encourage arbitrary arrests and would violate the right to a fair trial, including the presumption of innocence of people accused of using or selling drugs.”
INQUIRER.net has reached out to Malacañang through acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar for comment on Amnesty International’s report, but has not received a response as of posting.
[Available from POPULAR BOOK STORE, also <amazon.com>]
A Book Review by Paul Gabriel L. Cosme, Macalester College
E. San Juan, Jr.’s Maelstrom over the Killing Fields brings its readers through a concise yet critical historical montage of Filipino struggles from the times inside the Spanish convent to American Hollywood and during today’s struggles against Rodrigo Duterte’s impunity and war on the poor. Consisting of eight vastly different essays, San Juan focuses on themes, ideas, and situations that encompass a wide variety of interests and viewpoints on the Filipino struggle.
The beginning essays provide the historical topography of how the Philippine nation developed as a series of struggles between local classes and colonial forces, namely the Spanish, American, and the Japanese. San Juan traces briefly how each colonizer established and operated its hegemony. Where Spain put minimal effort to co-opt the local population, the United States crafted a neocolonial strategy of assimilating the elite classes through a wide variety of entryways, primarily, education. During the Second World War, the Japanese wreaked havoc throughout the archipelago, but none of this chaos and violence would cease as the Americans reclaimed the Philippines. Even after independence, the United States’ grip on the Filipino nation remains strong.
San Juan also highlights the historical phenomenon of the Filipino diaspora and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) as crucial to revitalizing the mass consciousness towards Filipino determination. By engaging the problems of OFWs, a critical pedagogy may be developed to trigger “acts of remembrances and ultimately deliver collective redemption.” San Juan’s illustration of Fanny Garcia’s “Arriverderci,” which is set during the peak of the Marcos-induced exportation of Filipinas, provides us a glimpse of this pedagogy as to how putting a critical eye on the diaspora may reenergize the study of culture in the homeland.
In one of his reflective essays, San Juan provides us a narrative that concerns the failure of communication in the cultural landscape of his alma mater, the University of the Philippines – Diliman. Through the tradition of semiotics and literary theory, primarily through Charles Sanders Peirce, the essay shows us issues of communication by pondering the faculties’ reception of San Juan’s “Man is a Political Animal,” an ironic riff on Aristotle’s idea of the human being as a “political animal.”
He also takes prominent cultural figures, specifically Jose Rizal and Nick Joaquin, and combs through their works, contributions, and controversies that relates them to the project of national liberation. By taking apart Rizal’s revolutionary novels, San Juan highlights how Rizal reflects on and encapsulates the intersectional struggles of gender, class, and the nation into an allegorical network that is all connected to Sisa’s character. Through this exploration, San Juan uplifts Rizal’s subversive achievement in contributing to a revolution through a dangerous occupation during those times—writing. Meanwhile, San Juan takes up Joaquin, whom he claims as the artist of the Hispanicized Filipinos and ilustrados and argues that his focus on the ordeal of the “urbanized Indios of Metro Manila” fails to address the plight of the Filipino holistically as he excludes “the peasantry and the whole proletarian world of serfs, women, tribal or indigenous communities marginalized by Spanish and US colonial domination.”
San Juan also does not spare discussing nationalism, its development, and the history of struggles and resistances that surround it. He traces various actors and events in Filipino history that contributed to the nationalist project, which consists of the ilustrados, the propagandists, the revolutionaries, the proletariats, artists, and intellectuals, which span from the Spanish colonial era to the Marcos dictatorship. He illustrates figures such as Isabelo de los Reyes, poet Benigno Ramos, and Salvador Lopez, among others. San Juan also highlights the contribution of Filipina writers towards national insurgency. He engages works by Lualhati Bautista, notably her Dekada 70, Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa?, and especially her Desaparesidos. A notable critic of the Marcos dictatorship, Bautista attempts to articulate the Filipina experience during those dark times, and San Juan uplifts Bautista’s efforts to rekindle our collective memory and to make visible the disappearing bodies and neglected stories of Filipinas in the national struggle.
San Juan drives the nail with his exegesis of Duterte’s impunity and war on the poor while connecting the historical lines between the political drama and circus between the United States and the Philippines. From Duterte’s exhibitionist Anti-Americanism to his bloody rampages, San Juan discusses how counter-movements and resistances in the homeland and the United States challenge the violence and human rights abuses of Duterte’s regime in hopes of stopping the degradation of the Philippine democracy.
One can say that San Juan’s Maelstrom over the Killing Fields distills his scholarship and writings about the Filipino project towards self-determination without sacrificing depth and brevity. His interventions on the project of national liberation provide a succinct yet varying accounts of the “Filipino people’s durable tradition of counterhegemonic revolution” that are informative and compelling to all readers. Filipinos, especially intellectuals and compatriots, may find San Juan’s work refreshing, challenging, and seriously provocative. But above all, Maelstrom strongly reminds us of the complicated yet rich history of struggles over the making of the Filipino nation and its psyche.
By: Kurt Dela Peña – Content Researcher Writer / March 24, 2022, Inquirer.net
MANILA, Philippines—While Lorraine Badoy said that red-tagging is not dangerous, at least 427 activists—slain after they were red-tagged—could show otherwise, according to the human rights group Karapatan, which itself had been red-tagged.
The “Danger in Dissent: Counterterrorism and Human Rights in the Philippines” report by the International Commission of Jurists stressed that red-tagging often has deadly consequences, saying that there were people who were killed after they were red-tagged.
This, however, did not stop Badoy, one of the spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) from saying that Vice President Leni Robredo is conspiring with communist rebels.
Last March 14, Badoy said that since Joma Sison, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), endorsed Robredo on Twitter, it was proof “that this marriage made in the bowels of hell has been consummated.”
Even without evidence, Badoy said that the Makabayan bloc’s endorsement of Robredo was an endorsement of the Central Committee of the CPP, New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).
Robredo and the CPP dismissed Badoy’s “new low”. The Vice President, who is running for president, said no coalition government is being contemplated while the CPP said it has not made any agreement with anyone.
But the Vice President’s dismissal was not enough for Badoy who said on Monday (March 21) that anyone who can’t condemn the CPP-NPA-NDF is “not worthy of our trust and will use the powers of his or her office to torment us.”
She said that as what “former CPP-NPA-NDF cadres” told her, “it is impossible” for Robredo not to have known: “This endorsement was earned by the Vice President after a series of negotiations […] where she agreed to concessions.”
GRAPHIC: Ed Lustan
These remarks of Badoy, who also works for the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), did not sit well with 26 individuals who filed complaints against her on Wednesday (March 22).
They said, “defaming and intimidating a fellow public official, much more ordinary citizens, is inappropriate for the position of Usec Badoy.”
“A person who initiates and spreads fake news has no place in government and the dominant state media,” they said.
These complaints, which were filed at the Office of the Ombudsman by activists who were likewise red-tagged by the NTF-Elcac, was the latest in a string of complaints filed against her and other NTF-Elcac officials:
9, 2020
The think tank Ibon Foundation filed a case against Badoy, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and former military general and NTF-Elcac spokesperson Antonio Parlade Jr. before the Office of the Ombudsman.
The “first and historic” red-tagging case, it stressed that the officials committed “malicious abuse of authority and negligent performance of duties as public officials” when they vilified activists and the institution.
This came as Badoy tagged the Ibon Foundation, an economic think tank, as a “communist front” when its head researcher, Rosario Guzman, fact-checked the PCOO’s Duterte Legacy on One News’ The Chiefs.
It said the remarks of the NTF-Elcac officials, which even went beyond saying that the think tank is radicalizing the youth, violated the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
But for the NTF-Elcac the case was “perfectly bound to fail,” saying that it was never a crime to defend the State. It said “if they fail to inform and save the people,” they will be remiss of their sworn responsibility and obligation.
July 1, 2020
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate filed a case against Parlade at the Office of the Ombudsman. He said Parlade had red-tagged him and Bayan Muna party-list while they were campaigning in the 2019 elections.
He said Parlade publicly attacked his person and character and that he engaged in black propaganda and negative campaigning against him, Bayan Muna and Makabayan.
Zarate said that Parlade’s remarks constitute prohibited political campaign activity. He stressed that the then military general violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Administrative Code.
He stressed that Parlade’s remarks violated Section 55 of the Administrative Code which prohibits individuals, who are part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), from participating in “partisan political activity”.
Parlade responded that to tell the people and expose to them the real nature of Bayan Muna and similar groups as communist fronts was not a criminal offense.
4, 2020
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay filed criminal and administrative complaints against Badoy, Esperon, Parlade and even then Communications Undersecretary Mocha Uson “for acts that malign, vilify and baselessly red-tag Karapatan.”
Palabay said that the NTF-Elcac, especially Parlade, repeatedly alleged that Karapatan has links with the NPA. Even the Civil Relations Service of the AFP shared Parlade’s allegation that Karapatan is a “terrorist front”.
The respondents violated the principle of distinction as stated in international and domestic law, stressing that the government signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
Likewise, Palabay said that red-tagging constitutes a violation of the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.
The NTF-Elcac, however, said that the complaints were only a “tactic” to divert people’s attention on the cases filed by the government against activists: “The charges do not deserve the serious consideration of the Ombudsman.”
7, 2020
Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago filed a case against Badoy, Esperon, Parlade, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency Director General Alex Monteagudo, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.
Filed at the Office of the Ombudsman, the 42-page complaint stressed that as stated in The Ombudsman Act, the respondents’ actions should be investigated.
She said red-tagging her and Kabataan party-list was rife with lies and are malicious and misleading. “They are done in bad faith and in direct affront to professionalism and political neutrality.”
This, she said, constitutes a violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. She stressed that the officials intentionally committed grave misconduct and malfeasance.
9, 2020
The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) filed a case against Badoy, Esperon and Parlade, saying that they allegedly used public resources and their public offices to red-tag NUPL.
It said the NTF-Elcac “relentlessly, baselessly and maliciously, without any credible, competent and admissible evidence” vilified NUPL. It stressed that this is “contrary to law, oppressive, unfair, discriminatory and devoid of justification.”
The NUPL said that over the years, people’s lawyers were red-tagged. Some even received threats while some have survived killings or ended up dead, like lawyers Rodolfo Felicio and Benjamin Ramos.
“The pattern is crystal clear: the complainants and its lawyers are being discriminated, persecuted and harassed for their membership with the NUPL and on account of the cases, clients, and advocacies that they take on.”
The NTF-Elcac, however, described the complaints filed by NUPL, Kabataan and Karapatan as “nuisance” cases against people who she said were the ones who have taken off the “masks” of NUPL and similar groups.
18, 2020
The AlterMidya, a network of alternative media outlets, asked the Office of the Ombudsman to dismiss Badoy, Parlade and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples head Allen Capuyan over their baseless red-tagging.
They alleged that the officials violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
AlterMidya, Bulatlat, Kodao Productions and Pinoy Media Center said Parlade and Badoy alleged that the media outfits were “long-time cohorts” of the CPP. Parlade said the alternative media network was created by the CPP.
They asked the Office of the Ombudsman to place the officials on preventive suspension while an investigation is being conducted and then dismiss them from service with “forfeiture of benefits”.
Capuyan, in a Senate investigation, likewise red-tagged AlterMidya. In a presentation, he alleged that AlterMidya and the rest of the network are part of the CPP’s National Propaganda Bureau.
March 23, 2022
As Badoy alleged that Robredo was conspiring with rebels and that she made a “pact with the devil” to win the presidency, 26 individuals filed three separate complaints at the Office of the Ombudsman.
The complaints said Badoy violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees and that she should be investigated.
Some of the individuals who filed the complaints were former Kabataan Rep. Raymond Palatino and Delfin Castro, older brother of Dr. Natividad Castro. They likewise asked that Badoy be suspended until the end of the present regime.
The NTF-Elcac said it stands firm in its responsibility of speaking the truth to the Filipino people, stressing that red-tagging is a tool used by those she described as “CPP-NPA-NDF fronts” to silence those who are about to blow their cover.
Problem with red-tagging
Badoy repeatedly said that the Supreme Court (SC) had decided that “there is no danger to life, liberty and security when one is identified as a member of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”
But Edre Olalia, the president of NUPL, said there was no such decision by the SC “or any court for that matter”. He said last year that Badoy was taking a court decision out of context.
Badoy said then: “How is it possible that our own legislators ignore what the Court of Appeals (CA) and the Supreme Court have already made clear: that there is no such thing as ‘red-tagging’?”
In a fact-check by Vera Files, it was shown that while the CA decision said that there is lack of “substantial evidence to establish the petitioners’ allegations, “nowhere in the ruling does it assert there is no red-tagging.”
Olalia said that a correct reading and understanding of the SC resolution on Zarate v. Aquino, G.R. No. 220028 would disclose that Badoy’s claims have no basis.
“It did not say that red-tagging is not dangerous, much less that it does not exist,” he said.
For Olalia, Badoy was either “misreading, misquoting or even misrepresenting an official document by the highest court of the land.”
Here in the Philippines, red-tagging is the act of labeling a group or individual as part of the CPP-NPA-NDF. This often results in their persecution and prosecution, or sets them up for attacks by State or pro-State forces.
For instance, Zara Alvarez, a paralegal of Karapatan, was killed on Aug. 17, 2020 in Negros Occidental. When she was still alive, her photo was seen on a red-tagging hit list which likewise had the photo of slain lawyer Ramos.
Likewise, Bernardino Patigas, an official of the North Negros Alliance of Human Rights, was killed on April 22, 2019. He was vilified and his photo was seen on a red-tagging hit list allegedly posted by the police in Moises Padilla town.
Last year, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights recognized incidents of red-tagging in the Philippines, saying that it was the act of labelling a group or individual as communist or terrorist.
Election red-tagging
After Robredo’s grand rally in General Trias, Cavite on March 4, Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla claimed that among the crowd were leftist youth activists.
He said the activists were “trained” by the NDF: “They have many students there, the activists from the Left. They were trained by the NDF. They brought banners but these were pink.”
Remulla said he agreed when told of the possibility that the Left and the Robredo camp already “joined forces”: “The CPP-NPA-NDF and the pink camp, they’re now allies.”
Sen. Ping Lacson, who is likewise seeking the presidency, said on March 6 when he shared a news article on Remulla’s allegations that it is “worrisome” when government officials form a coalition with communist rebels.
Anakpawis, which is part of Makabayan, said last March 10 that some of its volunteers, who were likewise campaigning for Robredo, were arrested.
Vice presidential candidate and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan said that their campaign team will provide legal assistance to activist Jonathan Mercado. His arrest, he said, is “political harassment”.
BAGUIO CITY—Youth activists here have rallied behind Mayor Benjamin Magalong who promised to shield them from Red-tagging after he was accused by a government task force of “protecting communist rebels.”
Magalong had directed the police to take down tarpaulins and other materials put up in public areas that label Baguio activists, students and other residents as sympathizers or members of the New People’s Army.
He gave the order during a March 12 dialogue with students and other groups who said they no longer felt safe in Baguio because of online bullying, sexual harassment and death threats after being wrongfully linked to the armed rebellion.
During the recent dialogue with local activists, Magalong, a retired police general, said he shared their desire to “right the wrong.”
But the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) on Monday denounced Magalong for reportedly protecting individuals and organizations it described as communist front groups.
In a statement, it claimed that Magalong’s supposed “betrayal” shows how politicians have abetted “the tenacious deceit of the terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines) … which would put our children in harm’s way.”
Kabataan and Youth Act Now Against Tyranny backed Magalong.
In statements on Monday, they said, “Red-tagging is harmful to our democracy in a way that it undermines the people’s constitutional right to speak up against injustices, corruption, and express dissent [by] immediately branding them as terrorists.”
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Magalong said he supported the programs of the NTF-Elcac, which he described as effective counterinsurgency measures.
He said he was surprised by the intensity of his condemnation, boosted by social media posts showing a photo of him alongside Kabataan members.
“I did not expect to be exposed to this kind of attack without any basis at all—without due process,” the mayor said.
