Alternative media groups on Friday filed administrative and criminal complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman against the government’s anti-communist task force for red-tagging.
The complainants — Altermidya, Alipato Media Center, Kodao Productions, and Pinoy Media Center — impleaded officials of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, executive director Allen Capuyan and ex-officio member Lorraine Badoy.
The complainants accused the three officials of linking them with the Communist Party of the Philippines “without sufficient basis.”
Citing Parlade’s statement on May 12, 2020 entitled “Reds free ride on ABS-CBN issue,” Parlade tagged Altermidya, Bulatlat and Kodao as “long-time cohorts of the CPP in the media, creations of the CPP, and stooges of CPP founding chairperson Prof. Jose Maria Sison.”
They narrated how Capuyan presented organizational charts in a Senate hearing which listed Altermidya, Bulatlat, Kodao and Pinoy Weekly as part of the “national propaganda and cultural commission of the CPP.”
Badoy accused Bulatlat and the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines as “communist fronts and terrorist [organizations].”
“Red tagging complainants brought a chilling effect on the press, as well as on discourse and debate, stifling the free expression of dissent. Respondents, thus, served as witting instruments of tyranny and repression,” the complaint read.
“Needless to add, the said acts are contrary to law, good morals, good customs, public interest, and are a grievous departure from the democratic way of life and values,” it said.
