#red-tagging

if you guys are posting about halalan 2022 please be careful cause they could start red-tagging! (rumor lang po but just in case<3)

red-tagging definition:

Red-tagging in the Philippines refers to the malicious blacklisting of individuals or organizations critical or not fully supportive of the actions of a sitting government administration in the country.

mga articles tungkol sa red-tagging po:

Deadly 'Red-Tagging' Campaign Ramps Up in Philippines

Red-tagging in the Philippines

Some cops still red-tagging on social media despite PNP chief’s warning – Zarate

if these articles are not entirely true, please tell me! i'll delete them from this post right away.

thank you to @softasha for reminding me of this!

It's based on real life. We had to change the specifics so as not to connect to any one specific incident, but it's common enough that there's more than one incident that could be referenced.

Mari's Tatay fulfills a very specific role in the story, a connection to the mundane that doubles as a connection to real life problems and threats in the Philippines.

𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘖. 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘢𝘻𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘢 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢 𝘛. 𝘊𝘳𝘶𝘻

On 3 July 2020, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law the “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020”, which replaces the Human Security Act of 2007. Under the law, persons who propose, incite, conspire, and participate in the planning, training, and facilitation is an offence under the act, as well as those who provide support to ‘terrorists’ as defined under the act, or recruit members of a ‘terrorist organization’, could face life imprisonment without parole. The law allows suspects to be detained without a judicial warrant of arrest for 14 days and can be extended by 10 more days, and placed under surveillance for 60 days, that can also be extended by up to 30 days, by the police or military.

This bill sparked many human rights advocates, as well as law experts to petition against the bill and why it should be junked for constitutional violations. 13 representatives were given a chance to challenge at least 23 sections of the bill in an oral argument according to a cover story by CNN Philippines (2021). The petitioners claim that the bill is vague to define what terrorism is and with phrases that are ambiguous that would enable malicious criminal prosecution of innocent rights-holders. They also challenged section 29 of the bill that allows warrantless arrest without charges of suspected terrorist for up to 24 days, emphasizing the dangers of leaving detained persons in the custody of arresting officers for extended periods of time. The petitioners would also argue on the sections on surveillance that it violates the people's rights to due process, privacy of communication, right against unreasonable searches and seizures, and especially their right to freedom of speech.

“The only way to break a protracted deadlock between the Philppine government and New People’s Army and end incidents of red-tagging through the peace process.”

But the thing is the military that is working within an organization namely the National Task Force that was said to end the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). However, it was said that these are just hidden fronts by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) to tear down the open structures with a massive budget of P19 billion which openly shows the objective of the said organization.

The result is that the military are planting weapons and explosives in each case just to justify their arrest. A mother is in jail with her month old baby, elderly couple with health issues are shot to death just because they are resisting arrest. Seven union organizers and journalists are arrested. Resulting in the increasing cost of red-tagging.

According to human rights groups, government supporters and state authorities in the Philippines are increasingly using "red-tagging," a method in which individuals are labeled as communists or terrorists based on a lack of evidence.

It’s like they are making use of these people with the red-tagging method as a replacement to their unsolved or uncaptured members of NPA's, which is a huge problem in our country. It’s like an escape to say that there's progress regarding the problem.

And this red-tagging should be eliminated to stop the involvement of people. Being victims of crime and injustice treatment. In fact, according to an article by Rappler (2020), last October 21, 2020 it was stated that Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. who happened to be the commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Southern Luzon Command and spokesperson of the government-created (NTF-ELCAC) warned Filipino celebrity Liza Soberano in a Facebook post that she would “suffer the same fate” as Josephine Anne Lapira, who was killed in a clash in 2017 between government forces and alleged members of the communist New People’s Army.

“Liza Soberano, there's still a chance to abdicate that group. If you don't, you will suffer the same fate as Josephine Anne Lapira” says Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr.

And this is all because the actress is supporting women rights organizations including the political party Gabriella. Parlade even said publicly that former and current Congressional representatives of progressive party-list groups, including Gabriela, are under surveillance for being “card-bearing members of the Communist Party of the Philippines” (CPP), adding that the anti-terror law is now “in effect”.

This kind of incitement and threat by Parlade shows how people of power can be quick to red-tag anyone who is affiliated with political groups even if the actress was only giving a talk about women empowerment at a seminar by Gabriela, a political party. This blatant action of red-tagging should be stopped as it endangers lives of innocent people who are only voicing out their concern against a certain problem that they encounter. If Liza, a known actress here in our country, is being red-tagged by the spokesperson of NTF-ELCAC, we can only imagine how many innocent activists are also being red-tagged just by joining rallies that voices out their concerns.

Furthermore, red-tagging has been going on for decades and intensified since the Duterte Administration. After the government and the CPP failed to reach an agreement in 2017, The NTF-ELCAC was established as a result of Duterte's following Executive Order (EO) 70, which calls for a "whole-of-nation approach in combating the Local Communist Terrorist Groups."

However, in the eyes of the observers or the people together with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights along with human rights organizations this led to renewed campaigns against red-tagging, the threats and harassment against human rights defenders, political activists, lawyers, and trade unionists. Expressing concerns to immediately end this kind of approach because of the increasing number of human rights violations caused by the government's dangerously broad counter-insurgency strategy.

Government authorities should cease from ‘red-tagging’ legitimate organizations, or branding them as “communist fronts” which, according to these organizations, have led to increased harassment and attacks by unknown individuals against them. Peaceful activists should not be targeted based on their political views. The authorities must also carry out a prompt, thorough, impartial and effective investigation into the killings, and bring to justice those suspected to be responsible for the killings. They must take proactive steps to ensure, protect, and promote the human rights of defenders and activists in the country, and guarantee the right to an effective remedy and access to justice to victims and their families.

𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘈. 𝘋𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘴𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘑𝘰𝘺 𝘈. 𝘖𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘯

In the Philippines, red-tagging refers to the malicious blacklisting of individuals and groups that are critical of or do not fully support the actions of a current government administration. Regardless of their real political ideas or affiliations, these personalities and entities are "labeled" as communists, terrorists, or both.

The practice goes back to the early 1950s in the Philippines, when affiliation in the Communist Party was outlawed, and to the McCarthy era in the United States, when Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy accused even US State Department officials of being communists based solely on his word. Associate Justice Marvic Leonen called red-baiting or “red-tagging” as "our version of McCarthyism" in his 2015 dissenting judgment on the Amparo petition filed by many members of party-list organizations before the Supreme Court, which was denied by the majority. On the other hand, in today’s governance, the Duterte administration despises the phrase "red-tagging," which refers to the deadly practice of accusing individuals and groups of being communist fighters. Assistant Solicitor General Marissa dela Cruz-Galandines said the word was "not coined by the administration" and was "used by the leftists."

Returning to the issue, many left-wing features are associated with terrorism as a result of this practice. It is now being used against healthcare professionals, activists, academics, students, and journalists, as per human rights activists. Thus according to amnesty international, the tagging craze has resulted in a rash of unlawful detentions and killings. From July 2016 to November 2019, Karapatan documented 293 extrajudicial killings carried out by the government of the counterterrorism effort, with 167 human rights advocates killed on average per week. Frustrated killings claimed the lives of at least 429 people. As per 2020-2021, attacks on leftist activists, community and Indigenous leaders, human rights defenders, and journalists have increased as a result of police, military, and unidentified gunmen.

In this day and age, Filipinos describe being red-tagged as a death sentence. Since there have been reports of extrajudicial killings of red-tagged people in broad daylight— members of the community cannot fight back in fear of being next on the list themselves. It’s getting increasingly harder to voice out national concerns or even do anything about them without being accused as a terrorist in military lists or even in social media posts without any cold-hard evidence.

Earlier in October last year, the legislation has passed the anti-terrorism act to address the welfare of national security against criminal terrorism. Only, the basis it is defined and penalized under threatens the safety of its inhabitants— undermining our very own constitutional rights with almost purposeful apathy. Even early this year, the Armed Forces of the Philippines made a display out of this specific concern— publicizing a list of suspected UP alumni and declaring them as either deceased or NPAs in hiding in their social media accounts— putting those on the list in danger and fear for their lives.

The United States has just sent its own authoritarian populist into retirement. Unfortunately there are still too many countries with leaders who have autocratic tendencies.

Notable is Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines who is famous for condoning the use of death squads against drug users and other people he doesn’t like. His government has also suppressed news media outlets which have tried to hold him accountable for his abuses of power.

Duterte’s latest anti-democratic exploit is to terminate an agreement which prohibited the military and police from entering university campuses without first notifying the administrations of the universities.

The pretext for breaking this agreement is that Duterte alleges that a communist insurgent group called the New People’s Army (NPA) is using universities to recruit new members.

In context, this Maoist NPA insurgency has been going on since the reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. It has been remarkably unsuccessful at overthrowing the government since the era of the first moon landing in 1969. This is a contrast to the non-violent People Power revolution of 1986 which actually dethroned Marcos.

In any case, the Duterte régime is using the NPA as an excuse to suppress any opposition to him on campuses. Duterte and his cronies have resorted to “red-tagging” which is a form of blacklisting which is similar to what happened in the US during the red scare era dominated by the witch-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

University of the Philippines Diliman is currently a hot spot for Duterte’s attempts to quash opposition to him. Rappler details the fallout from the régime’s efforts to red-tag UP-Diliman alumni as NPA members.