RED-TAGGING | Duterte administration officials face cases over baseless accusations against human rights group

December 4, 2020 , 05:02 PM

(December 4, 2020) – Criminal and administrative charges were filed against several officials of the Duterte administration before an anti-corruption agency for linking a progressive human rights group, Karapatan, to Maoist-led rebel forces in the country, the organization’s secretary-general said on Friday.

Cristina Palabay told journalists her organization wanted the Office of the Ombudsman to hold accountable four senior officials of President Rodrigo Duterte for maligning the human rights group.

“Red-tagging has no place in a country that supposedly aspires to be egalitarian,” the group said in the criminal complaint filed by lawyers from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).

“Instead of denigrating and imperiling people for their lawful exercise of their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression, the government should take note and address legitimate criticisms of its policies and practice,” the group’s complaint added.

Karapatan singled out National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, Army Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade as part of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for red-tagging activities.

Mocha Uson, former communications assistant secretary, was included in the complaint for spreading false information in social media against Karapatan.

They previously denied Karapatan’s allegations of red-tagging, arguing they were only speaking the truth about the group’s left-wing affiliations.

The act of red-tagging violates the international humanitarian law which provides that civilians must be spared from the ongoing conflict between armed rebels and the military under the principle of distinction, the complaint added.

Palabay said the Duterte administration officials had committed a crime against humanity for persecuting people who opposed the government.

She cited a particular instance wherein Parlade shared a social media post from the military’s Civil Relations Service Relations calling Karapatan a terrorist front organization. The general was also quoted last year saying the staff of Karapatan are infiltrated by underground rebel cadres, a proof of which was not established.

Both Badoy and Uson, on the other hand, had used their social media platforms to spread baseless accusations that Karapatan and other left-leaning groups have direct connection with Communist rebels.

Palabay also wanted Esperon, Parlade, Badoy and Uson to be charged with gross neglect of duty and libel, on top of violating the Ombudsman Act of 1989.

“We reiterate that Karapatan does not engage itself in any illegal activities as its advocacies include protection and promotion of basic human rights,” Palabay said, adding the organization’s work “constitutes monitoring of cases of human rights violations and assisting victims and survivors of such atrocities.”

The criminal and administrative complaints were filed days after the Senate concluded a public inquiry into government’s red-tagging activities.

During the same congressional hearing, Karapatan disputed military claims that the group are members of the New People’s Army, the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

(Beatrice Puente/MM)

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