As peace and human rights advocates, CLPI welcomes the recent Supreme Court Decision that declared Red-Tagging as a threat to peoples’ lives. This is a crucial step toward safeguarding the human rights of all persons who work for and defend human rights.
It is a decision, landmark in status, that ensures a safer environment for grounded discussions that will enable various voices from civil society to be heard. This ruling will allow people to raise issues and engage discussions without fear and intimidation that red labeling brings.
Coming from the final arbiter of issues in the country, it guides the executive branch of government to act. It accordingly paves the road to rebuilding trust and confidence between the government and peace advocates.
It is imperative for Government to heed the wisdom of the Court. It must promote accountability and check its own mechanisms including revisiting the calls to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC) and discipline its erring officers who have been committing acts of harassment through red tagging. Core security sector actors are called upon to abide by the Court’s orders.
CLPI in its mission to work for durable solutions to achieve peace calls upon the President to act on the Supreme Court’s resolution and take immediate steps to end the practice of red tagging:
- abolishing NTF-ELCAC;
- providing redress for red tagging, threats and other forms of harassment or killing of activists
- issuing an executive order to implement the decision of the Supreme Court.
For Congress, we urge them to review all legislative proposals to penalize acts of red tagging and pass law with dispatch.
These resolute actions will lead to upholding the rule of law and guarantee constructive dialogue and cooperation among all stakeholders of the peace process. #
*The Council of Leaders for Peace Initiatives (CLPI) is a group of highly respected individuals from diverse backgrounds and expertise committed to promoting transformative peace. It is a collaborative effort dedicated to accompanying and supporting the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
