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Thursday, March 28, 2024

AFP top brass deny red-tagging

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The Philippines’ top military officials, including Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Luzon Command Chief Antonio Parlade Jr., on Tuesday again denied red-tagging actresses Liza Soberano and Angel Locsin and Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray and accused the National Democratic Front and similar organizations of trying to destabilize democracy.

During the hearing of the Senate National Defense committee into the alleged red-tagging activities of military officials, Committee chairman Senator Panfilo Lacson directly asked Parlade if he red-tagged the female personalities.

“I would just like to ask this very important question, which is the meat of the hearing today, to Lt. Gen. Parlade: Have you in any way red-tagged Ms. Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin and Catriona Gray? Please answer,” Lacson told Parlade.

Parlade replied: “No, your honor. I did not.” Lacson then said he would let Parlade explain his answer later in the hearing.

Lacson questioned Parlade even as presidential spokesman Harry Roque said “The communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army cannot deny that they do not have legal fronts.”

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He made the statement in reaction to rights monitor Amnesty International’s call on the government to end “its vicious and at times deadly practice of red-tagging” or the practice of labeling groups or individuals perceived to be critical of the government as “communists” or “terrorists.”

“Instead of maligning and endangering people for the lawful exercise of their freedom of expression, the government should seek to address legitimate criticism of its policies and practices,” the group said.

But Roque said lawmakers had investigated the government’s alleged red-tagging of several celebrities and administration critics.

The Senate probe on the alleged red-tagging came amid the criticisms received by Parlade over his remarks warning Soberano and Gray against engaging with the women’s group Gabriela. He also accused actress Locsin of not revealing the alleged membership of her sister, Ella Colmenares, with the New People’s Army. They both denied the accusations.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana rejected the allegations of the Makabayan bloc that the military had been engaged in the red-tagging of the opposition and the personalities sympathetic to their cause. He said it was not a matter of their policy and it had no factual basis that could be accredited to any task force.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año also said red-tagging was a mere product of the imagination or fancy to pin down the opposition.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the state was duty-bound to protect its people. He said the government would do everything to ensure that the people were safe and protected, most especially from their enemies.

Lacson said as one of the authors and the principal sponsor of Republic Act 11479, or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, he would make sure that the same was applied correctly with utmost respect for the rule of law, and that the Bill of Rights under the 1987 Constitution would always be the backbone of this legislation.

“This is the reason why we gather here this morning with the end in view of crafting proper guidelines in order to prevent any misunderstanding between the public and our law enforcers and ultimately, to ensure the protection of the constitutional rights of the people in general,” Lacson said.

“When no distinction has been made between an activist and a terrorist, an idealist and an extremist, a reformist and a subversive, we risk putting everyone under a cloud of suspicion, and our society in a constant state of insecurity.

“To say the least, the alleged red-tagging is a crisis in itself. Rightly or wrongly, it stirs public outcry and imperils our conscientious effort to uphold and protect human rights in the country while strengthening our law enforcement measures.”

Senator Risa Hontiveros said she could not begin to imagine the anguish and emotional toll that the alleged red-tagging must have taken on the women who had been directly-hit by the accusations, as well as their families.

“I am certain that it has also caused a chilling effect on citizens who only want to weigh in on issues of national importance and hold the government to account for its failures to the people,” she said.

“I will not hesitate to speak against the violations of the NPA, as I have done. But I will not sit idly by in the face of the red-tagging and scare tactics by uniformed agents of the state, especially when those are perpetrated against ordinary civilians including women, and especially when there is a bigger enemy that is not being confronted.”

Senator Francis Pangilinan said not all activists became NPAs. He aired concern over the “simplistic, sweeping generalization” shown in some of the video materials that were presented during the hybrid hearing of Lacson’s committee.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, chairman of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, said parents and communist rebel returnees had testified that left-wing rebel groups were recruiting minors as their manpower for the armed struggle against the government.

“Instead of complaining that the police and military are red-tagging them, they should complain against Joma Sison [founder of the Communist Party of

the Philippines] because, in the first place, it was Joma Sison who red-tagged Bayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno, KMP, Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, LFS, Kadena, and others as major component organizations of the National Democratic Front that aim to overthrow the government through violent means.”

Meanwhile, the women’s group GABRIELA said Lacson’s hearing was a circus enabling victimizers Parlade and the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict a time when the Filipino people were in dire need of relief and decisive resolution to a crisis situation that had left millions hungry, unemployed and economically insecure.

“How repulsive that the government continuously fumbles when the coronavirus continues to threaten the lives of our people, when violence and abuse against women are in a historic high, and when Filipinos demand daily their rights and seek accountability from a government that is more and more exposed for its inaction, corruption and fascism. How repulsive that the government can attempt to sweep everything under the rug and devote its time instead to malign those who act to advance the people’s interests and truly, devotedly, serve the people,” GABRIELA said.

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