CHR slams ‘red-tagging’ of Mindanao-based journos

MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has denounced reports that Mindanao-based journalists accused of having links with the communist movement were continuously harassed and threatened.

“[The CHR] denounces recent reports of red tagging of journalists particularly Leonardo Vicente “Cong” Corales […] Froilan Gallardo of Mindanews, and other members of the press who are being harassed and linked to the communist armed movement,” CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said in a statement on Thursday.

“Previous threats against them continue to escalate as they are being targeted for bounty and being accused of alleged involvement in criminal cases through concerted vilification campaign from indeterminate groups,” she added.

According to De Guia, attacks against reporters undermine the public’s right to information.

“Journalists ensure accountability and transparency in a society. An attack against them is an attack against our right to truth and the right to be fully informed,” she explained.

“We in the Commission underscores that journalism is essential to peace, sustainable development, and justice as reporters are the ones going to the most dangerous places to deliver us information and give voice to the most marginalized sectors,” she added.

On Wednesday, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) said that several individuals in Cagayan de Oro, who were also red-tagged before, received flyers and banners saying that several personalities are part of the communist rebels.

https://www.facebook.com/nujphil/posts/10162240935680374?__tn__=K-R

Corrales and Gallardo were separately targeted in the pamphlets, while a flyer from a certain “Black Mamba” claimed that a P1-million bounty was placed for the death of Corrales.

“The courier packet that contained the flyer targeting Cong identified the sender as Danilo Tirso Mantangan of Sitio Camansi, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental with mobile phone number 09091020123,” NUJP said.

“Asked what he could have done to earn so much hatred as to seek his death, Cong said the only reason he knows is a column he wrote on the treatment Higaonon evacuees from Sitio Camansi, Barangay Banglay in Lagonglong town, Misamis Oriental had received when they descended on Cagayan de Oro to seek help from the provincial government,” the union added.

Gallardo on the other hand told NUJP that his association with the rebels may be borne out of an interview he did with New People’s Army (NPA) officials.

“Froilan said he might have been targeted because he had interviewed the New People’s Army on a raid in which they seized a number of weapons from security guards of Minergy Power Corp.,” NUJP noted.

“But whatever they may have done, there is nothing that justifies such harassment and vilification and, in the case of Cong, an actual death threat,” the group added.

De Guia called on authorities to investigate the issue and ensure that the reporters and other persons mentioned in the flyers, like human rights workers and other individuals, are protected by the state.

“The Commission calls on members of the security forces in Cagayan de Oro and Northern Mindanao to conduct investigations on these reports and ensure the protection of identified targets. The CHR is also investigating the matter,” she assured.

“There is a need to ensure a safe and enabling media environment to foster a free and balanced reporting of the real state of affairs in the country and to hold people in power to account. And of course, there is no complete democracy without a genuine media freedom,” she said. /jpv

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