MANILA – A progressive group on Thursday said the red-tagging of human rights defenders and journalists may continue to persist under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. because the government fails to acknowledge it as a problem.

At the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)’s Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines human rights records, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla was asked about how government critics were accused of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

BAYAN Secretary General Renato Reyes--who was also in Geneva, Switzerland at the time—said Remulla dismissed the issue.

“Yesterday, at least 5 member states, including United States and Sweden, raised the issue of red-tagging, which was said to be a threat to human rights defenders, journalists, and other critics of government,” Reyes said.

“And Secretary Remulla departed from his prepared speech and claimed that there is no such thing as a policy of red-tagging, there is no national policy of red-tagging, in fact red-tagging was a mere invention of the left to protect the left.”

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“So it was a very absurd claim spoken in the halls of the UN,” he added.

Reyes noted that denying that activism is even a problem means that government is refusing to acknowledge its ill effects on journalists, activists, and others opposing administration policy.

“We feel that this is going to be a problem because if the Philippine government keeps denying that the red tagging exists, that means they’re also denying the harmful effects of this practice and that the attacks on activists, journalists.”

“The harassment that we experience will probably continue under this regime because there’s really no remorse and really no recognition of the ill effects of this practice,” he added.

Reyes said the international community must continue to take a more critical look at the human rights situation in the Philippines.

He also said that countries must not give the Philippines military aid until it has met all its human rights obligations.

“The US is going to donate, give another $100 million in military aid despite the awful human rights record of the Philippine government. We cannot allow that,” he stressed.

--ANC, 15 November 2022