Elago decries PNA post that allegedly red-tagged her anew

Kabataan party-list Representative Sarah Elago on Friday slammed the Philippine News Agency after it posted a tweet tagging her as a leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front.

In its tweet, the PNA posted a photo of members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group delivering "boxes of evidence" to the Department of Justice.

The PNA said the evidence was against “CPP founding chair Joma Sison, Anakbayan Rep. Sarah Elago & other CPP-NPA-NDF leaders” to be filed by parents of children allegedly recruited by the communist groups.

In response, Elago called the tweet bogus, pointing out that she represented Kabataan in the House of Representatives and not Anakbayan.

“I represent @KabataanPL, the sole & genuine youth sectoral party in Congress. Anakbayan is a national youth organization, not a partylist,” Elago said in a separate tweet.

“Sa PNA post pa lang, bogus at sinungaling na! Ibasura na ang mga recycled at gawa-gawang kaso na ito. This is pure harassment!” she added.

(Just the PNA post itself is bogus and false! Junk these recycled and false cases. This is pure harassment.)

Elago sued government officials for red-tagging in 2020.

“Hindi na bago ang mga mali at mapanganib na paratang na ito. Ilang beses na ibinasura ng DOJ, SC ang trumped-up cases na puro red-tagging at kasinungalingan,” she said.

(These dangerous claims are no longer new. These trumped-up cases, which are nothing more than red-tagging attempts, have been repeatedly junked by the DOJ and the SC.)

In 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed the criminal complaint against Sison, Elago, Bayan Muna chairman Neri Colmenares and other activists over the recruitment of a senior high school student into Anakbayan.

“Malinaw na pandaraya ito sa #Halalan2022 dahil ginagamit ang pondo ng bayan para siraan, patahimikin ang Kabataan,” she added.

(It’s clear that this is a strategy for the 2020 elections because public funds are being used to besmirch and silence the Kabataan party-list.)

Meanwhile, the DOJ had previously urged Congress to come up with a bill criminalizing “red-tagging.”

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon had also urged President Rodrigo Duterte to certify the bill criminalizing “red-tagging” as urgent. — DVM, GMA News