Red-tagging in the Philippines


The propaganda tactic of "red-tagging" in the Philippines has often been directed towards individuals and organizations critical of the Philippine government, who are labeled "communist" or "terrorist" regardless of their actual beliefs or affiliations.
Filipino journalists also sometimes call the practice "red-baiting," although in other countries, that term can also refer to a rhetorical technique, separately from the propaganda practice.
Although the Philippines is a constitutional democracy where beliefs and political expressions are supposed to be protected, red-tagging has had a long history in the country, and cause oriented groups including the United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch warn that the use of red-tagging as a political tactic continues to undermine Philippine democracy by stifling dissent, encouraging authoritarian practices, and generally having a chilling effect on discourse and debate.
The Philippine independent news organization Vera Files notes that because President Rodrigo Duterte declared the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army a terrorist organization under the Human Security Act of 2007 in 2017, individuals and organizations who have been red-tagged are vulnerable to interception and recording of communication, detention without charges, restricted travel and personal liberties, examination of bank records, and the seizure and sequestaration of their assets. Reporters Without Borders notes that red-tagged individuals are vulnerable to death threats and violence.
The New People's Army is waging an insurgency against the Government of the Philippines, with forces numbering up to 4,200 according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 2017. However, organizations frequently subject to "red-tagging" in the Philippines include human rights organizations, church or religious groups, health worker unions, the academe, and the mainstream media.

Definitions

Commonly defined as the harassment or persecution of a person because of "known or suspected communist sympathies," the extensive history of red-tagging in the Philippines has led to the recognition of several formal definitions by the Philippine Government.
The Commission on Human Rights follows the definition laid down by the International Peace Observers Network, which defines it as:
"An act of State actors, particularly law enforcement agencies, to publicly brand individuals, groups, or institutions as...affiliated to communist or leftist terrorists."

Additionally, the term has been defined in Philippine Jurisprudence through the dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen in the 2105 court case Zarate vs. Aquino III, in which Leonen adopted a 2011 journals' definition of red-tagging:
"the act of labelling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/ or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists a strategy...by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be 'threats' or 'enemies of the State.'"

Effects

Red-tagging impinges on the right to free expression and dissent according to media and rights groups. The Philippine Commission of Human Rights also noted that red-tagging threatens the lives or safety of individuals. Four activists killed in June 2015 in Sorsogon City may have been the result of the activists's membership in groups that were red-tagged by the Philippine government, according to Amnesty International.
The CHR stated that red-tagging needs to be seen in the context of the increasing extrajudicial killings in rural Philippines and the government's counterinsurgency program.
Security forces have raided the offices of red-tagged organizations and arrested members of these organizations. The raids have been described as a crackdown on dissent.
In some instances, targets of red-baiting are also harassed by accusations of terrorism.

Red-tagging of specific groups

Red-tagging of Human Rights Organizations and Advocates

Human rights advocates and human rights organizations in the Philippines, whether civil society, intergovernment, and even governmental in nature, have often been the subject of "defamatory and intimidating public statements" as a result of their "human rights monitoring work."
In 2018, for example, a United Nations Human Rights Council report counted "at least 80 recognized human rights defenders, indigenous peoples' representatives, and representatives of community-based organizations," which the Administration of President Rodrigo Duterte had labeled as terrorists in connection with their work, some of which was part of their "cooperation with the United Nations." This included UN Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, who was wrongly listed as a senior member of the NPA.
In August 2019, Brandon Lee an American paralegal who volunteers for human rights organizations Ifugao Peasant Movement and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, was shot four times outside his home in Ifugao province, putting him in a coma. Since 2015, posters claiming Lee and other IPM members as "enemies of the state" and members of the NPA had been circulating in the province. Lee and the IPM had denied the allegations, and had continued their volunteer work in Ifugao province despite death threats.
The Philippines' own CHR, a constitutional commission independent of the three other branches of the Philippine government, mandated to monitor human rights abuses by state actors, has itself sometimes been threatened or vilified for conducting its investigations.
Humanitarian organization Oxfam was falsely accused in 2019 by the Philippine Department of National Defense of being a communist and terror front. The National Council of Churches in the Philippines and leftist women's advocacy group Gabriela Women's Party were also red-tagged. At around the same time, security forces raided the offices of red-tagged organizations and arrested 57 individuals.
In 2020, actress Angel Locsin, after she criticized Congress, was falsely accused of being a terrorist and a member of the NPA.

Media coverage

While there is some coverage of red-tagging as a practice in Filipino mainstream news coverage, media watchgroups such as the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility have noted that this is typically limited to reportage regarding the statements of the groups involved, and few news outlets add "the necessary explanation why the profiling of the two organizations is dangerous." In a January 2019 statement, they said:
"Dissent is essential to a working democracy. The independent press has to remind its audience of that fact as attempts to discredit various groups critical of the current regime continue, rather than just report statements of public officials condemning the politics of the Left and publicly naming those they see as 'Red.'"