Amid the surging cases of COVID-19 in the country, the state’s crackdown on progressive entities and their initiatives intensified, with the latest targets being the community pantries. Cagayan de Oro’s first pantry was not spared from it, as it was forced to suspend its activities a day after it started. Its organizer, UP Diliman graduate student and National Institute of Physics instructor Rene Principe Jr., was branded red in online posts and flyers from the supporters of the government’s anti-communist task force.

“Grabe yung escalation ng threat. Sa sobrang takot ng mama ko, giniba niya agad yung pantry. Nag-shutdown ako, kasi ibang level na ito. I’m alone here; wala ako sa UP. Sobrang vulnerable ko,” Principe shared, comparing their experience to the red-baiting of the Maginhawa community pantry, which immediately triggered widespread condemnation from the UP community and various progressive groups.

It is in this light that public support grew for Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon’s Senate Bill (SB) 2121, which seeks to punish state agents who tag individuals and groups as communists. It was filed last March 24, after various human rights monitors have raised concerns over the rising incidents of such attacks in 2020.

Progressive individuals and groups like Karapatan and the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) welcome the filing of the bill. For their part, Principe said that the passage of the law can protect innocent individuals from the worsening attacks, especially those who have limited access to legal resources.

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), meanwhile, had a different take. Its spokesperson, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, said SB 2121 was “worrisome and dangerous for the country.” She warned the legislation may be used as a “legal cover” for what the task force calls communist-terrorist groups (CTGs).

After spreading malicious Facebook posts claiming that front organizations of CTGs are taking advantage of community pantries for recruitment, the NTF-ELCAC is now being threatened with budget cuts. Even the lawmakers who have previously passed the agency’s P19-billion budget for 2021, such as Sen. Joel Villanueva and Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, now want to reallocate the funding towards pandemic response.

Despite the threat, the task force, which includes officials of the police and military, remain unfazed, as it continues to post anti-communist propaganda on their social media platforms, and even increased the number of its spokespersons.

Drawing the Line

SB 2121 seeks to penalize government officials, particularly state agents such as the police and the military, who maliciously claim that certain individuals and groups are members or supporters of CTGs in their counterinsurgency campaigns.

In the bill’s introductory statement, Drilon noted the “unprecedented escalation of red-tagging” that primarily targeted dissenting personalities like activists, lawyers, and other human rights defenders. The unrelenting state branding has led to serious violations, including arbitrary arrests, detentions, enforced disappearances, and even death.

Apart from vilification and life-threatening implications, red-tagging is also seen as an effort to confuse dissenting bodies from armed rebels. Karapatan public information officer Philip Jamilla contends that it is a brazen violation of international humanitarian law, as it “becomes a justification for state violence against civilians.”

The bill’s definition of red-tagging is similar to “red-baiting,” a term coined in the dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen in 2015 during the court ruling of the petition for writs of amparo and habeas data filed by Bayan Muna and Gabriela representatives, along with other progressive groups.

“[I]t is the vilification, labeling, or guilt by association of various democratic organizations. These groups are stereotyped or caricatured by the military as communist groups, making them easy targets of government military or paramilitary units,” Leonen wrote, citing a 2007 report by former United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur Philip Alston on disappearances and summary executions in the Philippines.

NUPL President Edre Olalia said the proposed law can provide a more concrete defense for red-tagged individuals. Currently, victims are limited to petitioning for a writ of amparo in court and filing administrative cases against erring officials, including the violation of the code of ethics for public officials, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and the Ombudsman Act. Olalia sees the passage of the senate bill as a faster way to give justice to victims of red-tagging compared to the current legal recourses.

‘Chilling Effect’

The NUPL said that the observable surge in red-tagging attacks has a “chilling effect” on citizens’ expression of anti-government sentiments. For instance, Olalia said it makes people hesitant and reluctant to speak out on the public sphere, such as in mass media and online, like Principe, who took a break from social media after they were red-tagged as a sympathizer of CTGs.

“Successfully nila ako na-silence, kasi I fear for the safety of my family, kahit labag sa prinsipyo ko yun. [I went on a hiatus because] feeling ko if may post ako ulit, mare-redtag ako ulit,” they said.

Principe’s experience mirrors officials’ common rhetoric of identifying individuals and groups with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA). Membership in the CPP was  previously illegal under the now-repealed Anti-Subversion Act. In 2018, the government has tried to proscribe it again as a terrorist group by virtue of the Human Security Act (HSA), but Olalia says the petition is now “moot and academic” after the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law last year, says Olalia.

With the court’s inaction over the cases of red-tagging, the situation on the ground remains hostile, even for individuals and groups performing humanitarian activities. The Maginhawa community pantry in Quezon City, from which Principe took inspiration from, was also forced to close for a day after similar incidents of red-tagging.

The rapid escalation of threats from online to on ground was also a concern. A day after the spread of the red-tagging posts, Principe was alarmed by the proliferation of flyers bearing the same disinformation in the vicinity of their home in Cagayan de Oro City.

Principe said that it contained a 2018 photo of them during a relief distribution to displaced Lumad in front of the provincial capitol. They were with the members of the Kabataan Party-list, as well as a volunteer priest, who were wrongly tagged as recruiters and members of the CPP and NPA.

Various advocates have observed a link between red-tagging and attacks on human rights defenders. Last December, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor reported that some defenders who have been red-tagged were later murdered, a pattern also observed by Karapatan in its compilation of extrajudicial killing incidents in their 2020 year-ender report. This is what happened with Karapatan paralegal Zara Alvarez and community health practitioner Dr. Mary Rose Sancelan, who were killed after being previously red-tagged.

A Welcome Development

Olalia said that while the passage of the anti-red tagging bill will not eradicate red-tagging “like a magic wand,” it can cause incidents to decrease and disempower reckless red-taggers. He also urged lawyers, specifically those in government, to stand with their colleagues in campaigning for the bill. He also called on Duterte to firmly denounce red-tagging, a move that he believes will have a significant impact.

Karapatan, for its part, lauds the law’s intent, but suggests the bill include more protection for red-tagged entities. It recommends including a provision on automatic protection for them, especially since current legal fallbacks are limited to filing administrative cases against officials, as well as petitioning for a writ of amparo in court.

With the bill yet to hurdle through its passage in Congress, individuals like Principe and other community pantry organizers are encouraged to educate themselves about their rights as protection in the event that they are illegally interrogated and arrested. The NUPL has also called on lawyers to provide legal services to community pantries facing attacks.

Principe hopes that others would not undergo the same traumatic ordeal that they went through. “It does more harm than good, kaya dapat talaga i-penalize ang red-tagging. Irreversible yung damage na dinudulot niya,” they said. “Ikaw mismo, sisisihin mo ang sarili mo, when in fact, ang tanging may kasalanan ay itong mga nangre-redtag.” ●