News release

May 12, 2013

Poll watchdog Kontra Daya today reiterated its call for the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and other concerned government agencies to probe the systematic campaign linking progressive candidates to communist rebels. The group made the statement after reports of red-tagging in Ozamiz City in Mindanao reached its national monitoring center in Quezon City. Kontra Daya also received similar reports from Davao, Bohol, Bicol and Southern Tagalog.

According to a field report from its volunteers, flyers linking the progressive bloc of party-list groups in Congress and senatorial bet Teddy Casino of Makabayan to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) were distributed outside a Catholic chapel in Ozamiz City last week. (See photos below) 

There were also reports that members of the Barangay Defense System (BDS), established by the military as part of its counterinsurgency campaign, were using community meetings to spread their red-tagging propaganda against Casino and the progressive party-list groups.

In its earlier statements, the poll watchdog pointed out that numerous political activists, including those participating in the elections, have been killed or abducted by suspected military elements because of their alleged links to communist rebels. Kontra Daya said that red-tagging and its direct connection to human rights atrocities allegedly committed by military elements has been affirmed in a 2008 report by Prof. Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Execution.

The group added that red-baiting also violates the right of Casino and the party-list groups being tagged as CPP fronts to pursue their advocacy through the electoral system. (End)