Rights group urges Comelec to issue guidelines on red-tagging

Photo by Carlo Manalansan/Bulatlat

By ANNE MARXE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Human rights group Karapatan called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to issue guidelines on red-tagging following the recent video released by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) red-tagging Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raoul Manuel.

In a statement, Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, said that the Comelec has not kept up with the spate of red-tagging videos, tarpaulins and the like that have already been sprouting in many places.

Read: Progressives slam red-tagging of party-list groups in Cagayan de Oro 

Palabay said that the video is a vilification campaign which she said, is obviously “aimed at misleading and terrorizing the electorate against voting for Kabataan Partylist.” Manuel is a member of the Karapatan National Council.

“Red-tagging, with its scare tactics and mind-numbing attacks against progressive candidates and parties like Kabataan Partylist, deflects attention from the candidates’ platforms and the burning issues that they should be addressing,” Palabay said. “Red-tagging combined with homophobic rants also foments irrational fear, hatred and bigotry and can be a prelude to hate crimes and fascist attacks against the targets.”

They urged the Comelec to issue guidelines against red-tagging forthwith, and “act on the many incidents of red-tagging already reported in order to thwart malicious attempts by entities like the NTF-ELCAC to sabotage the right of the electorate to hear from progressive and pro-people candidates and exercise discernment.”

In December last year, COMELEC said that it will issue guidelines to combat red-tagging and gender-based sexual harassment during the campaign period for the May elections.

‘New low’

Makabayan coalition president and senatorial candidate Liza Maza described the recent red-tagging of Manuel as a new low. She denounced what she described as a viciously macho and homophobic video released by the NTF-ELCAC.

“The NTF-ELCAC has long been notorious and lacks credibility. But the video it released about Raoul is a new low for a government agency known for fabricating outrageous lies that put at serious risk the life, liberty, and security of political activists, including leaders and members of progressive party-list groups like Raoul. Even the Supreme Court has recognized the evils that red-tagging causes to human rights. Hindi dapat ito palampasin (This should not be ignored),” Maza said in a statement.

Maza said that it is the “NTF-ELCAC who have long ‘come out’ as agents of violence and repression against the people and human rights. The NTF-ELCAC has long been repeatedly dancing to the old tune of lies against the Left and activists, including the youth.”

She cited the case of two environmental youth activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano. She said that the NTF-ELCAC falsely presented them as NPA members who voluntarily surrendered. However, Castro and Tamano exposed their abduction by the military during the very same press conference organized as part of the NTF-ELCAC’s black propaganda.

Kabataan Partylist, on the other hand, said that the Deduro v. Vinoya decision by the Supreme Court established red-tagging as a threat to life, liberty and security. They stressed that the said video “constitutes an electoral rule violation as it exposes the abuse of a government task force’s official social media assets and resources to threaten Kabataan Partylist using false claims that mislead and scare people to campaign against or withdraw support from the partylist.”

Read: Progressive groups welcome SC’s ruling on red-tagging 

The group said they are exploring possible legal action against NTF-ELCAC. “We also call on COMELEC to finally release its promised guidelines against red-tagging to counter this prevalent form of predominantly state-sponsored electoral fraud.”

Manuel and the Makabayan bloc has long been calling for the abolition and defunding of the NTF-ELCAC. Kabataan also filed House Bill 1152 or the Anti-Red-Tagging Bill. (RTS, DAA)