Left appeals for LGU laws to stop tag as reb front

BAGUIO CITY—Leftist militants are asking local governments in the provinces to draft laws to protect the Left from a “vilification drive,” which they believe has encouraged violent attacks on and abduction of Leftist leaders.

The groups hope to convince local government officials to issue resolutions or enact ordinances by October before affiliates of party-list groups Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela launch a major lobby effort for a national “anti-vilification” law, said Geneatte Galvez, project coordinator of a European Union-financed “mainstreaming campaign” for people, organizations and communities that had been labeled by government institutions as communist sympathizers.

“Such labels put people like us in danger and many of our members are forced to flee villages with their families to avoid drawing the attention of anticommunist groups,” said Abigail Bengwayan-Anongos, secretary-general of the Baguio-based Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA).

Provinces or towns need to draft local ordinances that punish people or groups that label activists as rebel sympathizers to make them targets of anti-communist groups, said Beverly Longid, president of party-list group Katribu.

Amnesty International said in its May 13 world human rights report that the Aquino administration needs to address 200 cases of enforced disappearances and 305 cases of extrajudicial killings.

Since the 2010 elections, Bayan Muna affiliates like the CPA have been the subject of posters identifying them as communist organizations, Galvez said.

Lawyers and paralegal experts of Dinteg (the Cordillera Indigenous Peoples Legal Center), the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, and the Cordillera Women’s Education, Action and Research Center (CWERC) plan to mount forums and roundtable discussions with government officials to explain the role played by Leftist organizations in their communities, Galvez said.

She said the “mainstreaming campaign” seeks to counter a military report which identifies Leftist party-list groups, non-government organizations and even churches like the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) as communist fronts. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon