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hen retired academic Clarita Carlos was picked in June 2022 by then Philippine president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to be his National Security Adviser, she said she would get rid of “red-tagging” or the labeling of people or organizations as communists or supporters of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The practice, abhorred by many, had enabled state actors to violate the rights of perceived opponents of those in power, and had even led to the deaths of several of those red-tagged.
Carlos, a political scientist, said that she would stop “red-tagging because it is not productive.”
“Let’s put our energies on the ground, addressing inequalities, lack of opportunities,” she said. “If you prevent these people from becoming journalists … scientists, if you kill their future, they will hold guns.”
Few, however, were optimistic that Carlos would be able to fulfill that wish, pointing to the probable military hangover from the Rodrigo Duterte administration, which had been notorious not only for rampant red-tagging, but also for extrajudicial killings. The then incoming government of Marcos Jr. was also perceived to likely follow the same path because of the Marcoses’ political ties with the Dutertes, as well as the looming shadow of Marcos Jr.’s late father, a dictatorial leader who had often used the communist threat as an excuse to stifle dissent.
So far, the pessimists are being proven right. The dangerous twist in the current situation, though, is that there now seems less coverage of red-tagging cases as more members of the media are themselves being called communists, NPA supporters, and even terrorists as a means to discredit them and their reports.
“The underreporting of red-tagging and other human rights violations exacerbates the danger the victims face,” said Casselle Ton, spokesperson of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance. “Without adequate documentation and media coverage, victims are subjected to more (frequent) and graver attacks.”
According to the latest annual report of the rights group Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights that was released just this March, 1,609,496 individuals were subjected to threats, harassment, and intimidation, mainly through red-tagging and terrorist-labeling, from July 2022, after Marcos Jr. was sworn in as president, to December 2023.
Sixty-seven of the 89 documented extrajudicial-killing victims were from “fabricated encounters,” the report also said. Of the 67, 59 were peasants who Karapatan said “were either deliberately targeted by the military on mere suspicion of supporting the NPA or indiscriminately killed in the counter-insurgency war. To evade scrutiny and accountability for these human rights violations, the military falsely portrayed the civilian victims as armed rebels.”
The U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), meanwhile, said that 13 of the nearly 52 red-tagging-related violent events targeting civilians that it recorded between 2020 and June 30, 2023, occurred after Marcos Jr. became president.
“These numbers include events where a person is physically harmed or killed,” it said. “In line with ACLED’s methodology, this count is not inclusive of cases of arrests, imprisonment, or other intimidation, and thus offers insight into only one component of the red-tagging phenomenon.”
Incomplete red-tagging tallies?
Yet rights groups themselves say recorded numbers of red-tagging victims may be far from the real figures.
In the Philippine north, the Ilocos Human Rights Alliance (IHRA) has asserted that the issue of “widespread and wholesale” red-tagging in rural areas remains underreported.
IHRA spokesperson Genero Dela Cruz said that red-tagging primarily affects peasants and fisherfolk communities with active people’s organizations in Ilocos, mirroring the findings of the Karapatan report. “However,” he said, “these incidents have received little or no press coverage.” He added that out of over 500 red-tagging cases recorded since Duterte’s time, only 30, mostly involving regional leaders, received press coverage.
Rights activist Ton, for her part, cited obstacles to documentation and coverage, such as fear of retaliation and restricted access in militarized communities. In some instances, she said, state forces and local authorities conceal information, stalling their work.
Ronalyn Olea, secretary general of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and chief editor of Bulatlat.com, acknowledged this while explaining that among the contributing factors are “the chilling effect perpetrated by government agencies, and even the agenda-setting of commercial newsrooms.”
Red-tagged herself, as well as her publication Bulatlat, Olea also said journalists who report on rights violations often become state targets. “Many are labeled as terrorists or communists and subjected to other forms of attacks,” she said. “This aggravates the chilling effect among media practitioners.”
Olea cited the case of Eastern Vista editor Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who marked her fourth year in detention last Feb. 7. In 2020, Cumpio — known for her coverage of police and military abuses — was arrested with four rights advocates in Tacloban City in central Philippines. She has been accused of possessing illegal firearms and “terrorism financing,” which her media colleagues and rights activists have called trumped-up charges.
The Protection Cluster of the independent government agency Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said that of 140 cases of red-tagging it recorded from July 2016 to July 2023, 41 were media-related, translating to an average of nearly six media red-tagging incidents per year. CHR has investigated seven media complaints, six of which involved state agents as respondents.
Data from media organizations present a more alarming picture. Members of the People’s Alternative Media Network (Altermidya) reported a total of 52 red-tagging cases from 2016 to 2023, or an annual average of seven. NUJP documented 32 incidents from 2021 to 2023 alone, or an average of more than nine a year.
‘Persistent and powerful threat’
In a July 2020 report on the Philippines, the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) remarked, “For decades, red-tagging … has been a persistent and powerful threat to civil society and freedom of expression.”
And yet the Philippine government continues to deny that red-tagging is a state policy and has repeatedly dismissed assertions about its existence. Security officials deflect concerns and criticisms by calling it “truth tagging” or misrepresenting court rulings.
In an email to Asia Democracy Chronicles, CHR’s Protection Cluster said that while “red-tagging” has a working definition, it “lacks a formal legal definition and is not specifically addressed in Philippine laws.” The office said, “The absence of a legal definition creates ambiguity and challenges in effectively addressing and combating red-tagging.”
CHR said that red-tagging is a rights violation that puts the general public at risk, and has urged authorities to stop the practice. Last December, the Commission initiated a discussion to “lay the groundwork for potential legal reforms and policy measures to address (the issue).”
But it has also admitted: “One challenge the CHR has often had is that state agents sometimes ignore subpoenas sent by CHR regional offices. Also, the CHR has called on state agents several times to refrain from red-tagging. Unfortunately, as with the subpoenas, the calls were often ignored.”
Vilifying and persecuting activists and government critics by associating them with communism are neither new nor unique to the Philippines. Red-tagging is a Cold War relic; in the 1950s, then U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy launched a probe that transitioned from an effort to uncover supposed communist fronts to tarnishing reputations through baseless accusations.
Nearly 75 years later, the tactic remains a potent threat to democracy across the globe.
In 2022, red-baiting emerged as an issue in Australia. Similar concerns surfaced in the United States the same year, particularly in the congressional race for California’s Orange County.
In Asia, Indian authorities have also used red-tagging against NewsClick, an independent media outfit. More recently, it has become one of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s instruments for silencing critics.
Philippine officials have argued that the country’s communist threat is real, given the continuing challenge posed by NPA guerrillas. But observers counter that the communist insurgency has been overused as an excuse by those in power to go after their perceived critics, who, aside from journalists, rights activists, and farmer-rights advocates, have included medical professionals, lawyers, and even the religious.
Surfacing stories
Red-tagging became an emblematic human-rights issue during Duterte’s presidency, especially with the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). In a report to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in late 2022, Amnesty International said that NTF-ELCAC’s establishment four years prior had “led to an increase in red-tagging and security operations against groups accused of being linked to the leftist movement.”
U.N. Special Rapporteurs Irene Khan and Ian Fry have on separate occasions advised the government not only to cease red-tagging, but also to abolish the NTF-ELCAC.
In late January, Khan, a U.N. expert on freedom of expression and opinion, made an official visit to the Philippines. In several of her meetings, she listened to stories of red-tagged civilians that had remained largely unknown to the public, while her office received more than 70 submissions from different sectors and stakeholders.
Among the cases submitted by civil society groups from northern Philippines were that of fisherfolk leader George Cacayuran and Kalinga farmer leader Eddie Baggay. Interviewed by ADC, Cacayuran said that he and his family have had intrusive visits from, and confrontations with, members of the military even during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The military has repeatedly accused him of having communist connections, Cacayuran said, adding that they have had such visits since 2017.
Baggay told ADC that the military had insisted that the NPA created its associations and initiated its socio-economic projects. The military demanded they quit their village organizations, he said. “We sought the support of (local) officials but were advised to comply with the military’s directives to clear our village of rebel influence.”
At least Baggay and Cacayuran are still able to tell their tales. Among the red-tagging cases mentioned in Karapatan’s 2023 report was that of farmer Antonio Diwayan, whom the military reported as an NPA fatality during a supposed encounter with the guerrilla group in Abra province in October 2023. His family and townmates refute this claim.
Down south in Sarangani province, farmer Alvin Ponto was killed by the military in an alleged encounter. Government soldiers had harassed Ponto, accusing him of being an NPA member.
In her Feb. 2 exit statement, Khan observed: “[Red-tagging] intimidates and chills freedom of expression and suppresses legitimate activism, journalism, debate, and criticism, which are part and parcel of freedom of expression.”
She added: “It isolates and antagonizes those who are unfairly attacked, puts them in a vulnerable position, may even drive them to exploitation by others, and undermines public trust in civil society and the media.”
But Clarita Carlos’s short stint in the Marcos Jr. administration is a stark reminder that ending this dreaded tactic remains an uphill battle. After only seven months as National Security Adviser, Carlos resigned because of “factors and forces.” Her replacement: a retired general and NTF-ELCAC member who has repeatedly justified red-tagging. ◉
