NTF-ELCAC’s
red-tagging underscores urgency of passing bill on protection of
rights defenders - Karapatan
By
KARAPATAN
January 27, 2022
QUEZON CITY – The
National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC)
red-tagging of the authors of House Bill No. 10576 or the proposed
Human Rights Defenders Protection Act “only underscores the urgency
of passing the bill into law,” human rights alliance Karapatan
stated on Thursday, as it called on the Senate to pass Senate Bill
No. 179, the proposed measure’s counterpart bill, filed by Senator
Leila de Lima.
“The NTF-ELCAC and Badoy’s
unhinged and rabid red-tagging of the authors of the proposed Human
Rights Defenders Protection Act in the House of Representatives
should seriously alarm our senators to act with urgency. This is a
very clear reason why a law on protecting human rights defenders in
the country is long overdue, and why it should be passed without any
delay,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay urged.
NTF-ELCAC spokesperson
Lorraine Badoy, in her statement last January 20, red-tagged the
authors of the proposed measure, as well as Karapatan and the
National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, by claiming that it was authored
by “urban operatives” of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the
New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front, and that, if
passed, “the bill will open the floodgates of abuse and torment on
our people by terrorists” and render the Anti-Terrorism Act
“ineffective and toothless.”
House Bill No. 10576 – a
consolidated version of House Bills No. 15 filed by Albay First
District Rep. Edcel Lagman, No. 161 filed by Quezon City Sixth
District Rep. Jose Christopher “Kit” Belmonte, and No. 240 filed by
the Makabayan bloc – was approved by the House of Representatives on
its third and final reading last January 17, 2022 with a total of
200 affirmative votes. No legislator voted against or abstained on
voting on the bill.
Palabay asserted that the
Badoy’s statement “clearly shows the NTF-ELCAC’s aversion to uphold
human rights in its militarist, fascist, and anti-people
counterinsurgency agenda; after all, the NTF-ELCAC is guilty of the
worst atrocities against human rights defenders from red-tagging,
judicial harassment, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial
killings. Intentionally or not, she also exposes the true intent of
the terror law: the NTF-ELCAC wants to use it specifically to target
human rights defenders.”
“With or without the Human
Rights Defenders Protection Act, human rights defenders should not
be targeted by the government for their work. However, the specific
situation of human rights defenders and the NTF-ELCAC’s attacks
continue to put us – and each and every Filipino – in peril. It is
therefore urgent that the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act be
passed by the Senate along with the proposed measures to penalize
red-tagging,” the Karapatan official ended.