Pacquiao: Beef up intel gathering, avoid red-tagging

TANGUB City, Misamis Occidental - Presidential candidate and Senator Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday said the government should intensify its intelligence gathering capability and refrain from red-tagging individuals without sufficient basis.

"Isa rin yan sa problema sa ating bansa. Ang kailangan siguro natin, paigtingin pa 'yung intelligence natin. Hindi lamang isang layer kundi like sa ibang bansa, hindi lang 'yan dalawang layer o tatlong layer to double check the information, kung tama ba ito, accurate ba ito o hindi," Pacquiao said in a media briefing here when asked about red-tagging of certain personalities.

(This is also one of the problems in our country. What we need is to intensify our intelligence. Not just one layer but like in other countries, it's not just two layers or three layers to double check the information, if it's correct, if it's accurate.)

Pacquiao said the government should take action at once if it has enough evidence that a certain individual is associated with the communists.

"Kung totoo naman 'yung mga ebidensya, kailangan din naaksyunan dahil 'pag hindi naman, wala namang magagawa ang gobyerno kapag lumala nang lumalala."

(If the pieces of evidence are true, then government should act on because the problem will get worse.)

Pacquiao said he personally knows of individuals who were red-tagged despite being innocent.

"Mare-red-tag sila dahil isa lang ang information. Kumbaga 'yung final, contaminated na, corrupt na 'yung information na 'yun na pinanggalingan eh talagang kawawa naman 'yung tao. Kasi may mga kaibigan ako na na-red tag din at kilala ko at wala namang ginagawang masama at mabait na tao," he said.

(Some are red-tagged based only on one source of information. The final output was already contaminated because the source of information was corrupted.  I have friends who were red-tagged whom I know did not do anything wrong and were good people.)

Several members of the Makabayan bloc last month filed a criminal complaint against officials of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and its spokesperson Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy for allegedly red-tagging Vice President Leni Robredo.

Badoy faced complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly red-tagging some organizations and officers, including the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) and Maginhawa community pantry organizer Patricia "Patreng" Non.

GMA News Online sought Badoy for comment but she has yet to respond as of posting time.—LDF, GMA News