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Drilon urges Duterte to certify bill criminalizing “red-tagging” as urgent


Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to certify the bill criminalizing “red-tagging” as urgent.

“With the opinion of the Secretary of Justice, we urge President Duterte to certify as urgent the passage of Senate Bill 2121 which we filed to punish red-tagging by state agents,” Drilon said in a text message to reporters.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra earlier said it would be best for Congress to enact a law that will give a clear definition to red-tagging.

This will reduce the “problem of reckless endangerment” of state forces, Guevarra said in a newspaper report.

“The opinion of the Secretary of Justice that there is a gap in the law, i.e., that red tagging is presently not a criminal offense under our laws, makes the passage of [Senate Bill] 2121 which we filed imperative,” Drilon said.

“We laud the stand of Secretary Guevarra pushing for the enactment of a red tagging law,” he added.

In a separate statement, the minority chief also asked Senate committee on justice chairman Richard Gordon to take up the measure.

Last week, Drilon urged the Senate leadership to tackle the bill he filed seeking to criminalize “red-tagging.”

His call came amid the linking of community pantry organizers to communist movements.

The minority chief pointed out that red-tagging “threatens life, liberty and security of a person. As I said before, being red-tagged sometimes serves as a death warrant.”

Drilon, a former Justice secretary, said libel or grave threat charges are not “appropriate and sufficient” if a state agent “vilifies” a person as an enemy of the state.”

This “impinges on the rights” of these individuals, he added.

“Victims are left without proper recourse against their perpetrators and are forced to file seemingly-appropriate-but-not-quite cases, like libel and grave threats,” the lawmaker said.

In March, Drilon filed Senate Bill 2121 which provides definition to red-tagging and make it punishable by up to 10 years in prison as deterrence “in order to fix the legal gaps, address impunity, and institutionalize a system of accountability.”

Under his bill, the crime of “red-tagging” is defined as the act of labeling, vilifying, branding, naming, accusing, harassing, persecuting, stereotyping, or caricaturing individuals, groups, or organizations as state enemies, left-leaning, subversives, communists, or terrorists as part of a counter-insurgency or anti-terrorism strategy or program, by any state actor, such as law enforcement agent, paramilitary, or military personnel.

The Senate national defense panel earlier came out with a committee report, saying there is no need for a law to penalize “red-tagging” as there were enough provisions under other judicial remedies for such cases.

But in April, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said he is now inclined to support the measure seeking to criminalize “red-tagging” after the Senate employees’ union was accused of having links with communist rebels.—AOL, GMA News

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