Mayor assails nat’l task force USec for saying he is ‘CPP-NPA protector’

I don’t condone violation of human rights 

   By Aileen P. Refuerzo

 BAGUIO CITY -- Mayor Benjamin Magalong took exception to accusations that he was in cahoots with left-leaning groups saying his support to the government’s anti-insurgency program had remained solid as evidenced by his contributions as the head of the regional task force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (ELCAC) but he does not condone acts that violate human rights of activists including intimidation, vilification and fact-twisting in social media.
    The accusation was hurled by National Task Force ELCAC Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy and League of Parents of the Philippines as a result of the mayor’s recent engagements with cause-oriented groups.
     Badoy, in a statement posted on social media, castigated Magalong for “betraying the government by issuing directives that give cover to the CPP-NPA-NDF front Kabataan Partylist” particularly the mayor’s orders to the city police to take down posters and tarpaulins linking activists to the insurgents.
    The mayor slammed Badoy for irresponsibly issuing the statement without first checking her facts.    
    “Badoy’s statement is irresponsible, irrelevant and completely absurd as it was done without due process and due diligence.  I risked my life fighting the insurgents hence I consider her statement as an insult.  I am willing to face her and others who claim the same in public and debate with them.   I am on the side of truth and I did not do anything wrong to undermine the ELCAC program, ” the mayor said.
    “Local government units should be ELCAC’s strong partners.  We should support each other and cooperate with one another.  Bullying and manipulating facts damage that relationship.  They twist the facts and shout over social media.   This tactic erodes the unprecedented gains of ELCAC.  Stories empower and enlighten.  But if it is intended to malign and tainted with negative thoughts and hatred, it robs people of their dignity.    Sadly, they just did that to me,” the mayor said.
He said ELCAC’s role is to “build bridges” and promote due process and one way to do it is to reach out to the affected sectors and hear them as what he did by engaging them.
     “The best way to defeat insurgency is through good governance.  It is not only about delivering basic services but mainly though innovation, transformation, competent leadership and respect for human rights,” the mayor said.
     “ELCAC has good programs and its accomplishments against insurgency are unprecedented but the problem is if there are high-handed people who resort to intimidation, vilification and truth manipulation. These acts would only result in radicalizing people and driving them further away from the government,” he said.
    He said his engagement with the activists allowed them to ventilate their sentiments from allegedly being victims of red-tagging and other forms of intimidations allegedly by uniformed men.
     He said he assured them that they are safe in the city and ordered the city police to disallow posters displaying photos of individuals and linking them to communist-terrorist groups.
     “After all, marami sa kanila are just activists voicing out issues against the government but they will never resort to violence and align themselves with the CPP-NPA.  I can say this because I saw them, kilala ko naman iba sa kanila.       Besides, it is just right to protect their human rights.  Tama lang instead of them being displayed without due process because if we do, what will happen to the families, their children?  Are we not radicalizing them?” the mayor said.
     He said this however does not mean that he had turned his back on the government’s anti-insurgency program.
     “Does it diminish my resolve to fight insurgency?  No, it does not.  If you will see the video of what transpired in the meeting, I was even defending the program because I believe in the ELCAC program with its unprecedented the accomplishments.   Nakita ko paano nag-unify through the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to really fight the communist-terrorist group.  It never happened before -- the entire government move in one direction -- ang laki ng gains because of ELCAC.  I know it, I have been through a lot of administrations and I saw the big difference now,” the mayor said.
     “I am still very much committed to fighting the communist terrorist group I hope they will continue supporting and sustaining the ELCAC program,” he added.
    Following this, cause-oriented groups and concerned folk called for “reallocation of NTF-ELCAC’s P17.1 billion funding to social services such as health and education and its abolishment as there is no place for the abhorrent task force in a society that believes in democratic processes and the rule of law.”
    In Manila, Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson said it was unfair of the government's anti-communist task force to accuse Magalong of such after Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy of the NTF-ELCAC made the pronouncements.
    Magalong, a former top official of the Philippine National Police who endorsed Lacson and Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto III in the May elections, has been  accused of "betrayal" and "deceit" for barring the practice of branding activists as rebels and for meeting with a party-list the government labelled a communist front.
    "It is very unfair to accuse Mayor Magalong of protecting the CPP/NPA/NDF (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front)," Lacson said Wednesday. “He risked his life so many times when he was still an AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and PNP (Philippine National Police) officer fighting the communist rebels and urban insurgents and the worst that anyone can do is to accuse him of protecting them," Lacson, a former chief of the PNP, said.
Based on the order barring red-tagging and on photos with members of Kabataan party-list, the NTF-ELCAC called Magalong an "angel of acrid necessity who brings to us the painful message of betrayal" and said he was among "unprincipled politicians whose political careers are littered with the bodies of our children."
    Magalong is a former head of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and served as head of the Cordillera regional police before that.
    The UN Human Rights Office, the Commission on Human Rights and several rights advocates said red-tagging has been institutionalized in the Philippines, flagging the practice as dangerous. 
    This, as youth group here assailed the NTF-ELCAC) “for red-tagging Kabataan Partylist, Cordillera Peoples Alliance and maligning Mayor Magalong.”
    “Abiding by their mandate to sow disinformation, the NTF-ELCAC red-tagged KP Cordillera and the CPA and vilified Mayor Magalong for his recent order to ban all red-tagging posters and tarpaulins which baselessly labeled individuals or organizations as communists from being displayed the city,” said Reginald Flores, spokesperson of Youth Act Now Against Tyranny – Baguio-Benguet.
    The Commission on Human Rights Cordillera in a recent advisory said “red-tagging or the act of labelling civilians as communists as a human rights violation precursor to further human rights violations  and as a matter of serious concern and should not be taken lightly.”
     “Red-tagging is harmful to our democracy in a way that it undermines the people’s constitutional right to speak up against injustices, corruption, and express dissent; immediately branding them as terrorists. It is also tantamount to electoral violence how the NTF-ELCAC provokes violence and harm against Makabayan partylists such as the Kabataan Partylist,” Flores said.
    “It is very apparent that red-tagging is a highly fundamental and machinery for the NTF-ELCAC that any individual or office that denounces or critiques it is met with more rabid and vehement red-tagging; so when Mayor Magalong did not conform to the NTF-ELCAC's malicious and harmful program to red-tag, the NTF-ELCAC was quick to politically vilify him as well,” he added.
    Meanwhile, Kabataan PL Cordillera spokesperson Louise Montenegro said they “condemn the unabated NTF-ELCAC disinformation campaign and red-tagging against activists and those critical of government policies and actions. We also condemn NTF-ELCAC's tirade against Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong and the outright disrespect for the independence of local government units.”