Whatever happens to Drilon’s anti-red tagging bill?
ILOILO City – As calls for its abolition are mounting, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) insists the government’s ongoing peace efforts are still relevant.
This came after United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Irene Khan recommended the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC.
Khan, who ended her 10- day official visit to the country on Feb. 2, stressed the taskforce is actually being used by the government for red- tagging and other forms of harassment, such as unwarranted surveillance.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines ( NUJP) lauded Khan for recommending in her report to “strengthen the protection of journalists and media freedom in particular, and freedom of expression in general.”
“We share Ms. Khan’s views about red- tagging, and we agree that the NTF- ELCAC should be abolished for its role in vilifying dissent, reportage, and the legitimate exercise of civil and political rights,” the NUJP said in a statement.
Prior to the recommendation to abolish NTF- ELCAC, former Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon has filed a measure i n 2021 t hat will make red- tagging state agents punishable by up to 10 years in prison and disqualified persons convicted of redtagging from holding public office.
Senate Bill 2121 or the proposed “Act Defining and Penalizing Red-Tagging” seeks to criminalize red- tagging and provide for penalties as deterrence “in order to fix the legal gaps, address impunity and institutionalize a system of accountability.”
The bill was first read last March 24, 2021 before it was referred to the Senate committee on justice and human rights, where it is currently pending.
Former senator Leila de Lima also conveyed her intention to be a co- author of the bill in her letter dated March 26, 2021.
In April 2021, Drilon even urged former President Rodrigo Duterte to certify as urgent the bill that he authored seeking to criminalize redtagging and also to address what former Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, who recently endorsed the bill, called the “problem of reckless endangerment” caused by red-tagging.
Under the measure, the crime of red-tagging is defined as the act of labeling, vilifying, branding, naming, accusing, harassing, persecuting, stereotyping, or caricaturing individuals, groups, or organizations as state enemies, left- leaning, subversives, communists, or terrorists as part of a counter-insurgency or anti-terrorism strategy or program, by any state actor, such as law enforcement agent, paramilitary, or military personnel.
In proposing the bill, Drilon lamented how the continuing governmental public branding has “threatened” the very life, liberty and security of the vilified men and women.
“It has resulted in serious human rights violations such as harassments, arbitrary arrests, detentions, and enforced disappearances,” he said.
He warned: “In some instances, being red-tagged is a prelude to death.”
The former justice secretary said libel, or grave threats, is not appropriate where a state agent vilifies a person as an enemy of the state thereby impinging on the rights of that individual.
“The measure will likewise serve as a reminder to the government of its primary duty under the Constitution to serve and protect the people,” he stressed./