Redtagging and the fight for land and life

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE – Pedro, an iSagada elder and farmer said, “ay ibaldog na ubpay nan kakailyan’ (so he places town mates in danger) when I told him that Sadanga Mayor Gabino Ganggangan said on Facebook that “Sagada and Besao seem to remain as the political base of the New Peoples Army (NPA) insurgency until now.”

                Pedro like any other Sagada resident in his 30s and above are knowledgeable of Sagada having been an encounter site between members of the NPA and Armed Forces of the Philippines(AFP) which eventually led to the people having unilaterally declared Sagada a demilitarized zone in the late 1980s.

That was before and Pedro is saying there are no more NPAs in Sagada now so why the statement of Ganggangan.

It is unfortunate that the word war between Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) chairperson and iSagada Windel Bolinget and Ganggangan on issues of the mayor having waived food relief as an act of ‘arrogance’ apart from not having consulted the people of Sadanga as Bolinget claimed counter attacked by Ganggangan  on  questions if Bolinget  has consulted IPs on the latter's representations to international fora and progressed on to red tagging by Ganggangan.

The word war in a series of letters posted publicly on Facebook continued on with respective statements asserting that communities- Bontoc and Sadanga  Mountain Province,Tinglayan, Kalinga and the Tingguians of Abra - fought for their ancestral lands against the Chico River dam project in the late 70s and logging operations of the Cellophil Resources Corporation in Abra in the ‘80s.

On to statements of Bolinget saying that Ganggangan is a member of the Cordillera Peoples Liberation Army (CPLA) known for their notoriety of squatting in Baguio and Ganggangan likewise saying CPA is linked to the “Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army (CPP-NPA).”

Red tagging pursued on and Ganggangan insinuated that CPA officers are members of the CPP-NPA with coincidental circumstances further dragging Sagada and Besao saying these towns are a ‘political base of the NPA.’

Pedro must be irked by Ganggangan’s statement.

Many a story has been that those accused of being communists, terrorists, or NPA disappeared in mysterious circumstances till now or died under violent conditions with the AFP as the strongly suspected perpetrators.

Some persons including Cris Batan and Robert Estimada, both workers of the Development Agency of Tribes in the Cordillera (DATC) were murdered in Bontoc, Mountain Province; James Balao of CPA disappeared in Benguet and until now his body has not surfaced, pangat leader Macliing Dulag of Tinglayan Kalinga was killed in his hometown, and others including the recent deaths of 14 farmers  in Surigao claimed by the police to be linked to the ‘CPP-NPA’, carry stories of having been murdered by the AFP and their integrated armed elements, the CAFGU.

While others were arrested and detained on charges of murder and other crimes.

They are community leaders strongly defending their lands from being dammed or mined, and staff of non-government organizations supporting communities of their resistance against projects aggressively implemented against the will of the people.

They are activists, full of dreams for a better community strongly in support of the rights of a people.

Innocent persons are either summarily silenced or threatened or arrested and peoples initiatives too, in community development. Fear is a factor and that is natural among people who are threatened.  

             Democracy and political pluralism, sadly is threatened with the many threats, arrests and deaths of activists. Human rights is  threatened with the very act of red tagging which places red tagged persons in danger of their security to life. It presumes a criminal act even without the benefit of due process in the courts of law on red tagged persons and groups who are vocal and active against the excesses and omissions of government.

Activists question excesses and omissions of government and forward what should be a better system. 

For one, corruption is at a high of the Philippines being the 113th least corrupt nation out of 180 countries according to the 2019 corruption perceptions index reported by the Transparency International and that’s 14  countries below  the 2018 ranking.

Unemployment reached 14% in 2019. A number of people don’t have jobs and to most are not receiving enough salary for their everyday needs so they go abroad for better pay. The Philippines also slid down one notch in the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Democracy Index for 2019, to 54th place.

             Why silence people on their political convictions and philosophies.  

             Where one wants to be a communist is one’s right. Where one wants to be a socialist or a lennist, an animist or populist, a rightist, a leftist a centralist is one’s preference. It’s a free world and the Philippines is a democratic country.  

Society with its many political beliefs and ideologies is a sortie of initiatives of many kinds- protectionism, globalization, autonomy, federalism and so on and there is no standard set of what is politically or culturally good for this world. Even the much touted government-led globalization is now being criticized on big companies monopolizing trade and small entrepreneurs getting edged off the economic arena.

This world is not black and white blocks.  It’s a spectral rainbow of beliefs, ideology, culture, religion, and nature provides the answers to this diversity. A harmony in diversity. If government who takes charge of a nation’s leadership shall make it happen.

Political societies have progressed to levels of discourse and possibilities with people exercising their rights to free expression and assembly.

Yet the Philippine government under the Duterte administration gone authoritarian declared war against the CPP-NPA and yet to resume peace talks with the armed group.  President Rodrigo Duterte declared the CPP-NPA a terrorist organization under the Philippines Human Security Act of 2007 (Republic Act 9372) in 2017 and tasked the justice department to file a court petition seeking to classify the CPP-NPA as a terrorist group, in accordance with the provisions of the Human Security Act.

            But communism is not illegal in the Philippines after Republic Act 1700 or the Anti Subversion law was repealed in 1992  via RA 7636. Even Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that mere membership to the CPP is not a crime "unless overt criminal acts are committed."

The decriminalization of communism in 1992 did not stop authorities from red tagging and arresting individuals as part of its anti-insurgency campaign, with charges ranging from illegal possession of firearms and explosives, to kidnapping and murder.

With this, the communists, the ‘CPP- NPA’ is the enemy of the AFP- Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and makes the country  adopt an ‘either you’re with the government or you’re not’ option of some sort. The Duterte administration does not distinguish what is CPP from an armed NPA group.

And CPA is accused by Ganggangan being linked with the CPP-NPA further accusing CPA officers as members of the CPP.

CPA, an alliance of 27 organizations spread out in the Cordillera region since its founding in 1984 works with people in communities. Surely, they must have met NPAs when they visit communities in the countryside, an NPA who may be a ka-ilyan or from other parts of the country.

               An interview with a resident in the countryside said they meet NPAs who go to their homes for  a meal. And it must be that a CPA staff who happens to be in the community tell the NPA too, to stay out from the community as it would be dangerous to the people whenever there is an encounter between and among the NPA with the AFP.

Bolinget in an interview said “in the conduct of the armed conflict, civilians/non combatants must not be affected in accordance with international humanitarian law”.

               NPAs in the country sides are not a surprise to be seen when they come down from the mountains and walk and talk amongst the people.

With the government’s fight against the CPP-NPA on their anti-insurgency program had always been a threatening stance on human rights. And people suffered. Including CPA workers and their officers aside from other suspected communist-linked peoples organizations as claimed by AFP. 

The very accusation of individuals and groups linkage to CPP-NPA kills free discourse and democracy, threatening the very  freedom and right to a belief on political and economic systems, threatening healthy community discourse and relationships.

The Supreme Court has defined redtagging as  “the act of labelling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/ or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists (used as) a strategy...by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies of the State.

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 (IPON), which defines  redtagging as an act of State actors, particularly law enforcement agencies, to publicly brand individuals, groups, or institutions as...affiliated to communist or leftist terrorists.”

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 sequestration of their assets”, apart from  red-tagged individuals being vulnerable to death threats and violence.

Red tagging violates constitutional guarantees of presumption of innocence and thus allegations should be "tried before fair and competent courts." Red tagging by its very act places red tagged persons in danger of their security to life.  

Red tagging further saps energy on persons and organizations who support  communities. It becomes a negative factor on peoples development, people’s organizations being crucial factors of community development as even the law and government recognizes that.

Red tagging personalities and people’s organizations is plainly harassment and a violation of human rights and places red tagged groups and persons in danger and threat to their lives.

              Organizations, individuals people have been placed into the limelight of conflict and physical harm because of the  NPA-AFP war and issues have not yet been resolved.  

Peace talks is the way and it is the way to make peace in this seemingly military led, impoverished and corruption-ridden country.

Where customary practices imply or express, ‘tungtung’ and verbally expressing one’s disagreement with the other to come up with agreements have been proven measures to stop conflict and war.

             Otherwise, “ay ibaldog na ubpay nan kailyan” as Pedro said.