Another day, another red-tagging spree for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) which this time, targets the camp and supporters of the presidential candidate Vice President Leni Robredo.
Without any evidence presented to the public, Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy accuses Robredo’s camp of having an allegiance with the CPP-NPA-NDF days after the Robredo-Pangilinan Cavite grand rally last March 4, 2022.
The said rally, fueled by the desire to prove the 800,000 votes promise of Cavite governor Jonvic Remulla to the Marcos-Duterte tandem wrong, brought together more than 47,000 people in the General Trias Sports Park.
In an attempt to halt the momentum of the opposition, the administration did what it does best: red-tagging.
Cavite 7th District Representative, Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, claimed that some of the attendees were paid and were “hakot” crowds. He questioned the huge turnout of attendees and claimed that some attendees were members of communist groups.
Again, without any substantial evidence, Boying Remulla stated: “Ang CPP-NPA-NDF tsaka ang pink, magkakampi na. ‘Yung pink naman kasi, dilawan ‘yun eh. Kakampi naman talaga nila ‘yun.”
Senator and presidential candidate Panfilo “Ping” Lacson also tweeted that those who attended the rally “looked” like student activists. He proceeded to raise a warning of a possible “coalition” government.
Ten days after the rally came the baseless statement of the NTF-ELCAC stating that Robredo formed a “tactical alliance with these communist terrorists [CPP-NPA-NDF] that is mutually beneficial to the both of them.”
To quote Makabayan bloc, nothing but gibberish (better: rubbish) from Badoy.
CLAIM 1: “VP Leni Robredo’s camp should stop insulting the intelligence of the Filipino people by pretending they have not made a pact with the devil, the communist terrorist CPP NPA NDF.”
Badoy’s outright red-tagging of Robredo, her camp, and her supporters have been debunked and denied by the Vice President’s camp. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a senatorial aspirant under the Robredo-Pangilinan slate, has discredited the source of information of the vice president’s attackers.
CPP Chief Officer Marco Valbuena denies the allegations insisting that the government’s narrative is based on “fabricated intelligence reports”.
“Duterte is rushing to build the scenario of ‘election disruption’ in the face of the increasing political isolation of the ruling regime and growing mass movement against the Marcos-Duterte tandem. The growing anti-Duterte and anti-Marcos movement is developing around the election campaign of leading oppositionists Leni Robredo and Francis Pangilinan,” Valbuena wrote.
Duterte also claimed earlier that he has received an intelligence report about the supposed conspiracy between the CPP and the “yellow” or “dilawan” forces to disrupt the elections. However, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Department of National Defense (DND) have yet to confirm the validity of this erroneous report and its source.
CLAIM 2: “This is why the VP has been a virtual mouthpiece of the terrorist group these past years — asking for the abolition of the task force mandated to end the 53-year reign of terror of the CPP NPA NDF, the National Task Force Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict.”
Leni Robredo withdrew her stance on the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC in December 2021, three weeks after she vowed to abolish it to create a conducive environment for peace talks. She reiterated that she is not against the mandate of the NTF-ELCAC, but against the excessive red-tagging and harassment of the government’s critics.
She emphasized her plan to use a whole-of-nation approach in solving insurgency, as is the mandate of the task force.
“Pero against ako the way NTF-ELCAC has been red-tagging, the way they… the task force has been used to, to go beyond the mandate that the task force has been given,” she states, adding: “It should not be used to harass political opponents,” Robredo said.
Robredo also clarified that she does not support armed violence and will not have an alliance with groups practicing it. The CPP, in the same manner, denied that there are talks of building a coalition government with Robredo.
CLAIM 3: “She has also repeatedly used the term ‘red-tagging’ — a tool the CPP uses to silence those who speak the truth about their fronts despite the consistent verdict given by our courts of law — including our Supreme Court that there is no threat to life, liberty, and security when one is identified as a ‘member of the CPP NPA NDF.’”
Red tagging, or red-baiting, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is the harassment or persecution of someone because of “known or suspected communist tendencies”. The CPP did not even invent the term red-tagging.
Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Marvic Leonen cited a 2011 journal article in his opposing opinion in Zarate vs. Aquino III defining red-tagging as:
“The act of labeling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists (used as) a strategy…by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies of the State’.”
Badoy’s claim about the SC ruling that there is no threat to life, liberty, and security when one is identified as a “member of the CPP NPA NDF” is factual. However, the court did not state, in any way, that there is no red-tagging.
Most, if not all, red-tagging activities by the NTF-ELCAC are done without substantial evidence. According to Cristina Palabay of human rights organization Karapatan, 78 people have been as a result of red-tagging in the year 2020 alone. Karapatan records also showed that at least 136 unlawful arrests were made.
Several national news outlets have also reported the numerous accounts of red-tagging done by the government under the police and the NTF-ELCAC against activists, individuals, and even some journalists who expressed their criticism of the government.
In December 2020, while Duterte’s Memorandum Order No. 32 is implemented in Negros, Dr. Mary Rose Sancelan, who led their community’s COVID19 pandemic response, and her husband were killed in broad daylight after being red-tagged weeks prior. She allegedly appeared on the list from Kagubak, a local fascist paramilitary group, which baselessly claimed that she had links to the NPA.
Despite the SC stating that there is no threat to life, liberty, and security when one is identified as a “member of the CPP NPA NDF”, the growing number of people getting wrongfully imprisoned, harassed, and killed after being red-tagged would say otherwise, such as the case of the Bloody Sunday Massacre carried
Even if they are actual communists, the Comprehensive Agreement on the Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) assure political rights as protected by both GRP and NDFP and prohibits the killing of hors de combat combatants.
CLAIM 4: “She [Leni Robredo] knows full well that it is the CPP NPA NDF that is behind the Makabayan Bloc/KABAG.” / “The Makabayan Bloc is the political machinery of the terrorist CPP NPA NDF that they employ during elections to pervert our democratic processes with the express goal of gaining political power that they will then use to continue the 53-year bloodbath they have wreaked on the Filipino people.”
Makabayan is a COMELEC-accredited political coalition of progressive partylists including Bayan Muna, Kabataan, Anakpawis, ACT Teachers, and Gabriela Women’s Party. The members under the bloc are registered under RA 7941, or the Party-List System Act.
COMELEC dismissed a disqualification petition against Makabayan in 2019 for having “no leg to stand on.” The petition was filed by Angela Aguilar who claimed that the party-list groups belonging to the coalition had links with the CPP-NPA. The petitioner also failed to attend the hearings regarding the case, hence the “lack of genuine interest” note by the commission.
In 2020, known activists Sarah Elago and Neri Colmenares faced kidnapping and war crimes complaints after being accused of abducting student AJ Lucena and recruiting her to join the leftist group, Anakbayan. The Department of Justice (DOJ) junked the said complaints after the student revealed that she left their home due to family problems and abuses and that she willingly joined Anakbayan.
According to the DOJ prosecutors, the complainants and their witnesses failed to submit evidence showing the connection of Anakbayan to the CPP-NPA-NDF.
“They also failed to present any evidence that would connect the respondents with the CPP-NPA-NDF,” they added.
In her statement, Badoy also tagged Neri Colmenares as an operative of the CPP-NPA-NDF together with many other Makabayan bloc representatives who were present in the Cavite sortie of the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem. Some of the individuals she mentioned are former Kabataan representative and Makabayan National Council member Raymon Palatino and Makabayan Deputy Secretary-General Obet De Castro, stating that they are functionaries of the CPP.
Like many of Badoy’s claims, these are stated without proof and can be proven untruthful as both Palatino and De Castro were not present in any Robredo sortie.
Makabayan rejects the redtagging, stating that the information peddled by the NTF-ELCAC through Badoy is “nothing more than gibberish”.
“This latest statement [by Badoy] nevertheless signals that the Duterte regime is running scared and has decided to step up its use of their discredited tactic of red-tagging to harass and intimidate the broad array of democratic forces which are steadily increasing and have coalesced to support the candidacy of Robredo and Pangilinan,” said the group in their March 14 Facebook statement.
The group also demanded the NTF-ELCAC to cease and desist from further red-tagging and harassment during the election period. They also urged the democratic forces to continue to defend and assert our fundamental rights to free expression and freedom in electoral participation.
Last week alone, Makabayan campaigners such as 10 Anakpawis campaigners and provincial coordinator Jonathan Mercado were illegally arrested in Cavite while Bayan Muna-Gensan coordinator Larry Villegas faced an attempted assasination.
#AbolishNTFELCAC
Featured image courtesy of Mac Villarino
