The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) Panay-Law Students, Kabataan Partylist Panay and University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas University Student Council condemned agents of the Philippine Army for Red-tagging and surveilling youth activists Thea Kryshna Dayata and Audrey Eurielle Dayata.
On June 22, state agents approached a relative of the Dayata sisters to purportedly gather information about the two. They showed the said relative photos, school records, and information about the sisters’ organizations at the university. The agents accused the two of being members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. The agents tried to justify their actions by alleging their concern for the two students becoming radicalized. They even tried to convince the relative to persuade her nieces to stop their activism.
Audrey is currently the NUPL-Panay Law Students Chapter secretary general and is a UP College of Law-Visayas student. Thea is currently KPL-Panay chairperson. Both have been part of Sandigan ng Mag-aaral para sa Sambayanan (SAMASA) and served as the 43rd and 44th chairpersons of the University Student Council of UP Visayas.
According to the NUPL-Panay Law Students Chapter, the state agents’ actions are clear cases of red-tagging intended to silence them.
“Red-tagging violates constitutionally guaranteed rights to organize, express political beliefs, and serve the people. This is not just an attack on two individuals but a direct assault on all youth leaders and civic organizations working for justice, and democratic rights,” the NUPL-Panay Law Students Chapter stated.
“Let us be clear: being a student-activist is not a crime. Organizing among the youth is not terrorism. Expressing dissent is not rebellion,” the group said.
Meanwhile, KPL Panay stated that if there are youth who bravely speak out and demand their rights, it is because the government has failed to ensure their freedom and dignity. “This is not illegal — this is democracy in action,” they said.
“These attacks only expose the deepening crisis of a system that vilifies the youth instead of addressing poverty, injustice, and repression. But history is on our side. As long as oppression and exploitation exist, the youth will continue to rise and persist — to arouse, organize, and mobilize in genuine service to the people,” the UP Visayas University Student Council said.
Various groups called for an immediate and impartial investigation into the red-tagging, harassment, and surveillance of the sisters, protection for all youth activists, and the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
