The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) strongly condemns the GRP’s red-tagging frenzy against human rights defenders and activists in the Philippines. These attacks against legal and democratic forces show how the BBM regime violates the rights and endangers the lives of the Filipino people with impunity.
The use of the suppressive Anti-Terror Law (ATL) against anyone and everyone, most recently with charges slapped against Cordillera activists Sarah Abellon-Alikes, Jennifer Awingan and Stephen Tauli, and Mindanao-based human rights defenders Jovencio Tangbawan and May Vargas-Casilao, is proof that the Marcos II’s regime is hell-bent on using its so-called ‘war on terror’ to target government critics and dissenters similar to the use of the anti-subversion law of his ousted dictator father.
The ATL, disguised as a legal instrument meant to keep ‘peace and order,’ is essentially weaponized, providing the Marcos II administration a license to terrorize anyone who is critical of the government. They are first red tagged then become targets of state-sponsored assassinations, illegal arrests, and extrajudicial killings which are considered war crimes under international humanitarian law.
The NDFP calls for the dismantling of all machineries of state terror including the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), the Anti-Terrorism Council and the Anti-Terror Law. These instruments of repression are part and parcel of the US-Marcos regime’s war against the Filipino people.
