Youth group urges CHR to probe red-tagging

Kabataan Party-List Rep. Sarah Elago. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Kabataan Party, which has been subjected to red-tagging on numerous occasions, submitted before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) a complaint along with evidence that government agencies, security forces and private individuals were “inciting hate and harm” on its officers and members on Friday.

“We call on the CHR to look into these cases of attacks, smear campaigns and disinformation drives against youth and students and their organizations,” Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago said in a letter to CHR chair Chito Gascon.

Elago also urged the CHR to quickly resolve its previous requests in relation to the red-tagging incidents.

“[T]hese false allegations and vilification have posed a great risk to the lives and advocacy work of student and youth organizations after being targeted by death threats, red-tagging and lewd comments on social media, mostly coming from social media accounts of the (Philippine National Police), the (Armed Forces of the Philippines), government officials and private individuals,” Elago said in the letter.

Also included in the party list’s complaint were its local chapters. In the unified complaint, they detailed various human rights violations committed against their members.

The group had previously asked the National Bureau of Investigation’s cybercrime unit to look into several red-baiting incidents on social media.

Human rights group Karapatan in December filed before the Ombudsman a complaint against officials of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict for red-tagging activists. —NIKKA G. VALENZUELA