Senate union welcomes SC decision on red-tagging

THE Senate employees union, found relief from the Supreme Court ruling that declared red-tagging, vilification, labelling, and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty, or security, which may justify the issuance of a writ of Amparo.

To recall, the union, Sandigan ng Empleyadong Nagkakaisa sa Adhikain ng Demokratikong Organisasyon (Senado) was once tagged as part of the Communist terrorist group by the National Task Forece-end Local Communist Armed Conflict (Ntf-elcac) in 2021 along with other unions in the government like the Supreme Court Employees Association.

The two unions are affiliates of the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage), the umbrella organization of public sector unions.

Senate employees admit having feared for their lives and security like other unionists, human-rights advocates, journalists, and leaders of people’s organizations who were red-tagged and became targets of harassment and extrajudicial killings.

“The recent decision of the Supreme Court on red-tagging is a slap on Ntf-elcac’s spokeswoman Lorraine Badoy’s when she claimed that the Court had ruled that there is “no such thing as red-tagging,” Senado president Rosel Eugenio, said.

The union statement noted that its president, Eugenio, was accused by Badoy of being an operative of the Communist Party of the Philippines, its military arm, the New People’s Army and its political organ, the National Democratic Front (CPP- NPA-NDF).

Badoy also reacted to the support the unions received from more Senators, including Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Sen. Anna Theresia “risa” hontiveros vda. de Baraquel, Sen. Leila de Lima and Sen. Francis Pangilinan who joined the call for immediate passage of Senate Bill 2121, the proposed“act Defining and Penalizing Red-tagging.”

“With this new development, we hope that our lawmakers will speed up the passing of the law that criminalizes red-tagging, penalizes those responsible and the abolition of the Ntf-elcac as a state machinery aimed at silencing and suppressing rights and freedom of ordinary people like ours,” Eugenio added.

Senado in it statement also urged the Ntf-elcac to stop putting the lives of ordinary people like government employees and leaders of different peoples’ organization in peril through red-tagging.