Karapatan welcomes public inquiry on red-tagging
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Human rights group Karapatan welcomed the Commission on Human Rights public inquiry on red-tagging held on Jan. 14 and 15.
The CHR began the public inquiry on red-tagging last year. In its earlier statement, the CHR said the inquiry aims discuss how red-tagging leads to human rights violations. It also seeks to provide a legal basis for protecting vulnerable Filipinos from this practice by ensuring accountability, redress, and access to justice.
In a statement, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said the inquiry is an “important step in coming up with a clear picture of how prevalent red-tagging is across the country and its detrimental effects on the conduct of human rights work, and what accountability mechanisms can be adopted to put a stop to it.”
Palabay and other human rights defenders were invited at the inquiry to give their testimonies. Palabay cited multiple instances from 2018 to 2023 where she and/or Karapatan and its affiliates were red- and terror-tagged by former President Rodrigo Duterte, officials of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), military units, paramilitary forces and elements in their employ.
One of the many instances of red-tagging that Palabay cited was on May 17, 2017 where Duterte threatened to decapitate Palabay and Karapatan, which it called a “fake human rights group.”
She also cited in her judicial affidavit the many incidents of red-tagging by former NTF-ELCAC officers, Lorraine Partosa-Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz. Palabay said this was after Karapatan wrote the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons about the worsening plight of internal refugees in Mindanao due to intensifying bombings and other military operations under Duterte’s counter-insurgency operational plans (oplan) Bayanihan and Kapayapaan.
“Red-tagging involves hurling false accusations, often against human rights defenders, in order to vilify them or their organization, beliefs and activities, and eventually justify the commission of graver human rights violations against them and their group or community,” said Palabay. “It is a vicious and insidious way of suppressing dissent and sweeping human rights violations under the rug.”
How red-tagging affects targeted individuals
In her affidavit, Palabay narrated how a targeted individual is affected by red-tagging.
“Due to red-tagging, the fear of being surveilled or being subjected to worse forms of human rights violations would limit a person’s movement and conduct. They could feel immobilized as they would be afraid of moving around, such as going to work or to school, or even by simply traveling,” Palabay said.
She continued, “This shows how it impairs their freedom of movement. It causes fear of continuing with their advocacies or in speaking out against the government. This shows how it restricts their freedom of speech and assembly.”
Palabay also said that organizations that have been red-tagged prevent them from recruiting new members or from conducting their peaceful and lawful activities.
“This would show how it curtails the right to freedom of association. Of course, the violation would also be evident when red-tagging would lead to the actual deprivation of their liberty or even their life,” Palabay said.
In many instances, those who have been red-tagged were arrested like the case of Teresita Naul, Karapatan National Council member and Bayan Muna member. She was arrested in 2020. The authorities claimed that Naul is the secretary of “regional White Area Committee, North Mindanao of the Communist Party of the Philippines.” Her name was also included in a leaflet distributed in Cagayan de Oro that red-tags activists and human rights workers.
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Palabay said that under the Duterte administration, 15 human rights workers of Karapatan were killed. None of the perpetrators to these attacks have been prosecuted and convicted, she said.
Palabay said, “By committing the act of red-tagging, perpetrators have the aim of affecting the personal security of a person, and threatening the physical safety of the victims because of their political beliefs, stature, positions, advocacies, whether these be true or perceived.”
Red-tagging can also lead to various forms of psychological harm, Palabay said.
“This would include trauma, anxiety, and a potential feeling of isolation. All of these effects amount to a violation of a person’s rights,” Palabay said.
“We have referred victims for psychosocial support, and the doctors would tell us that red-tagging in any form causes distress. There can be particularities in each case, such as finding post-traumatic stress disorder, or depression in some. Especially as it has been already established that activists experience vicarious trauma of the victims they assist already. They themselves being targets puts on trauma on top of trauma,” she added.
For Palabay, red-tagging is dangerous not only against the groups or individuals that have been red-tagged but against society as a whole.
She added that it also undermines democracy and prevents peaceful efforts for social change, ultimately hindering progress. Given all these negative effects, Palabay said she sees no valid reason for red-tagging.
Currently there is no law that punishes the acts of red-tagging in the Philippines. The Human Rights Defenders Protection Act is still pending at the House of Representatives after it was passed on final reading. The proposed bill has a provision that will penalize those who engage in false labeling, red-tagging and other forms of vilification.
A similar measure was filed by former Sen. Leila De Lima in the Senate in July 2019.
Read: Rights group lauds passage of bill protecting human rights defenders
Karapatan and other members of civil society organizations have long been calling for the passage of this bill but there has been no progress to date.
Meanwhile, Karapatan further recommended the abolition of NTF-ELCAC and the repeal of repressive laws such as the Anti-Terrorism Act which, they said, “led to an abundance of cases and incidents of red-tagging and terror-tagging.” (RTS, RVO)
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