Guevarra backs bill criminalizing red-tagging, says incidents 'disturbing'

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Thursday said Congress should come up with a bill criminalizing “red-tagging” as recent incidents are already “quite disturbing.”

“In the past few months, medyo sunod-sunod ang reklamo about red-tagging and people have raised their voice against it, so might as well have one because the frequency of this act loosely called ‘red-tagging’ has become quite disturbing,” Guevarra said in an ANC interview.

Currently, the Justice secretary said there is no law that can punish exactly the acts considered as red-tagging but there are relevant criminal charges that can be filed against the perpetrators.

“Maybe the best could be done is to file complaints which are somehow related but not directly fitting to the act being complained of,” Guevarra said.

Guevarra said libel, defamation, threat, and coercion are some of the relevant charges that could be filed against people who are doing acts of “red-tagging.”

So far, there are no cases filed against National Task Force To End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade, who has become controversial due to his recent red-tagging of community pantry organizers.

“As far as the DOJ is concerned, wala pa kaming natatanggap na (we have not received) any complaint for red-tagging against any person, particularly against General Parlade,” he said.

“Maybe the reason for this is wala pang (the is no law) right now against red-tagging,” he added.

But despite his support for the bill, Guevarra said President Rodrigo Duterte is not likely to certify it as urgent as it does not fall in the administration's legislative agenda.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, the bill's author, has urged Duterte to certify it as urgent.

Senate Bill 2121 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.”

Meanwhile, Guevarra said he cannot speculate whether the controversial Anti-Terrorism Law has given some members of the security sector the power to red-tag certain individuals and groups.

However, he said there is a “reason to believe that there may be a linkage” between the said law and the act of red-tagging due to certain provisions in the ATL (Anti-Terror Law) on the recruitment and membership in a terrorist organization. —LBG/KBK, GMA News