Ecumenical youth group Student Christian Movement of the Philippines raises discomfort over the statement of Justice Secretary Jesus Cripin “Boying” Remulla in defending instances of red-tagging against the critics of the Government.
That time, he spoke in the meeting of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee in Geneva, Switzerland.
“Secretary Remulla is basically admitting that the Government itself commits acts of red-tagging, and by extension, ultimately responsible for its consequences like harassment, arrests, and even killings. The state, with its monopoly on violence seems, to carry it out further by justifying red-tagging,” denounced Kej Andres, SCMP National Spokesperson.
SCMP, as an ecumenical youth group that seeks to uphold human rights, also condemns the approach Remulla deals with the critics of the government.
“Secretary Remulla does not seem to understand how democracy works. Criticism is part and parcel of a flourishing democracy. The government must engage with its critics in order to come up with bottom-up changes in the society. When it comes to belligerent groups, the government’s only recourse must be through peace talks based on socio-economic reforms in order to address the roots of armed conflict. This has also been the advice of international groups,” Andres explained.
SCMP has been able to list at least 81 cases of human rights violations, many of which have been related to red-tagging. List: bit.ly/BBM_HRVs
“With the red-tagging of church people and their criminalization of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, it seems that Secretary Remulla is on a red-tagging rampage. The Marcos administration continues the bloody red-tagging legacy of the Duterte administration in clamping down on its critics and stifling democracy,” said Andres.
Last August, the DOJ charged at least sixteen people, including church people from the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, for allegedly financing the CPP-NPA-NDF.
However, the copy of the resolution was withheld from the reporters because of “privacy.” SCMP back then condemned this act as acting “as Pilate’s court.”