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Friday, March 29, 2024

CHR welcomes Carlos’ stand on government red-tagging

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The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has welcomed the statement of incoming National Security Adviser, Dr. Clarita Carlos urging the end of the practice of red-tagging, also known as red-baiting, especially those from government agencies and its representatives.

In its Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in the Philippines (2020, https://bit.ly/3zu0UwX), the CHR, citing former UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, Philip Alson, describes red-tagging or red-baiting as the “vilification, labeling, or guilty by association” that “involves the characterization of most groups on the left of the political spectrum as ‘front organizations’ for armed groups whose aim is to destroy democracy” and as “enemies of the State” making them as legitimate targets. In the past, however, human rights defenders, activists, media, advocacy groups, and sectoral representatives among others have also been at the receiving end of red-tagging.

“CHR has long since cautioned against the harms of red-tagging which range from harassment and intrusion to one’s right to privacy, to graver ones that include unlawful arrests, enforced disappearances, injuries, and even killings,” executive director Jacqueline Ann de Guia said.

“Instituting a policy barring red-tagging will go a long way in protecting the life, liberty, and security of various individuals and groups, especially those unfairly labeled,” she added.

She said CHR equally welcomed the proposal from Carlos to instead focus the government’s efforts in addressing inequalities and lack of opportunities on the ground that drive insurgency.

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“In this way, the Philippines may move toward a more just and humane society by addressing the root causes of conflicts that deprive us all of a just and lasting peace,” she said.

Carlos earlier said she hopes the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) would stop red-tagging individuals and instead focus on actually helping people on the ground.

According to Carlos, a retired University of the Philippines political science professor, labeling people and identifying them as “terrorists” do not solve the problem.

“Why are you ID-ing [identifying] people as if you are concluding already? Stop this red-tagging,” she said.

If adopted by President-elect Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., this would be a major shift in strategy against so-called “communist terrorists” in the Philippines vis-a-vis the hardline approach taken by the Duterte administration.

“And we don’t need to negotiate [with the communists]. We have been negotiating since I was young. We have to stop that. Let us do the route of the peace councils because the peace councils are the ones nearest to these insurgents who really want to have jobs, who want to have education, who really want to dream to be journalists, architects, social scientists like me,”she said.

Carlos said there has been a lot of evidence that a militarist strategy never works against insurgency, and thus, the government should do what works.

The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army has been waging armed struggle since 1969 or over 5 decades already. The Cory Aquino government began peace negotiations in 1986 after releasing all
political prisoners, many of whom were communist rebels. Negotiations with the National Democratic Front (NDF) were pursued by succeeding governments, but the talks collapsed in a major way during the Duterte administration.

“Empirical evidence after empirical evidence shows, the military route never works, so we should stop it. We look stupid doing the same things that do not work. We should do what works.)

“Don’t waste your time doing these things,” Carlos said

Instead of red-tagging and putting labels on people, the government should focus on the needs of insurgents in order to convince them to return to society, she said.

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