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“By merely having access to social media, private individuals could publish their thoughts without need of self-policing or adhering to the ethical standard required of the press. As a result, content could be created and shared with abandon, purely for clout for ‘likes’ and even disregard for the truth.”
Rights groups said UN Special Rapporteur Ian Fry’s visit to the country "puts on center stage the sinister role played by the NTF-ELCAC and the dangerous impact of the terror law on the lives and safety of environmental human rights defenders in the country."
"Though factually baseless and clearly malicious, I cannot merely dismiss Respondent Duterte’s red-tagging and accompanying grave threats as either figurative, joking, or otherwise benign considering that many victims of extrajudicial killings, illegal arrest and detentions, excommunicado confinements, forced disappearances and other analogous attacks were called or labeled 'communists,' members or supporters of the NPA, “terrorists,” and like labels before they were attacked."
“They [soldiers] should be the ones protecting our youth who speak up, not the ones repressing our rights to speak out." - Aila Joy Esperida, editor-in-chief of The Democrat.
NUPL Chairperson Edre Olalia said that while they did not achieve full legal redress, the decision "can be viewed as a loud warning shot, as it were."
Atom Araullo has been at the center of a red-tagging spree since early 2022, targeting both him and his mother Carol, long-time activist and former chairperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.
For Karapatan, this recent development is “obviously part of the NTF-ELCAC's so-called ‘whole of nation approach’ of harnessing all available resources to surveil, profile, red-tag, marginalize, persecute and inflict other human rights violations against the poor and other critical voices, including the institutional church.”
After the SONA, the likes of Jeff Celiz, Lorraine Badoy Partosa, and NTF-ELCAC mouthpieces look like "kulang sa yakap" from Marcos. They don't have SONA soundbites to misuse.
We must therefore never forget that contradiction in fighting back for freedom of expression today. Freedom of expression is not a privilege of those in power, but a weapon of the oppressed to safeguard against the abuse of power—whether economic, political, and social.
Carol Pagaduan Araullo said that she is filing the complaints “in behalf of those who do not have the means, the opportunity and support system to do so but who are experiencing red-tagging/terrorist labelling and the harassment, if not actual terror, this brings.”
The resolution of the Kalinga Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) dated April 28 urged all cities and municipalities in Kalinga to "require all entities presenting themselves as Non-Government Organizations (NGO)" to secure permission from the local government before conducting any activity.
“It is not just the journalist that can benefit from this, but also others who have been red-tagged in social media by anonymous media accounts. What this case will do is to surface that, to actually know who is doing this evil thing so we can take action.”
Bulatlat interviewed Bishop Gerardo Alminaza as he shared his thoughts on red-tagging and his mission as a shepherd in one of the country's most militarized dioceses.
“As we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, I couldn’t think of a better way that the Philippine government could show its value, its worth, than adopting and implementing this act. It definitely would show commitment to the work of human rights defenders."
Among the cases the workers brought to the attention of the labor department is the harassment against Jaime Paglinawan, and several other workers rights advocates, whose photos appeared in a Facebook post, with a note that read, “they are the root cause of violence in our society.”
In the Philippines, victims of rights violations face dead ends as they turn to the Office of the Ombudsman for justice and redress.
The NUPL has recorded a total of 262 work-related attacks in the past 15 years, including that of 86 lawyers, judges and prosecutors. Five of whom were members of the NUPL.
“The government is using the UN joint program, they say they are complying with the HRC resolution. We don’t want the international community to depend only on that because that is only a window dressing of the Philippine government."
The UNHRC said they are concerned at the “reports of increased crackdowns, including in the context of the government’s counter-terrorism and anti-illegal drug operations, on human rights defenders, activists and other civil society actors to discourage them from carrying out their legitimate activities.”
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