No to red-tagging! Abolish the NTF-ELCAC!

Statement on the Supreme Court ruling re: red-tagging

Malaya Movement USA welcomes the recent Supreme Court decision declaring that red-tagging and vilification by association “threaten the Right to Life, Liberty, and Security of those accused,” as a result of a court case for activist and former representative of the party-list Bayan Muna, Siegfred Deduro, who was red-tagged by military officials in 2020.

While this is a positive step, it is not enough when institutions established to redtag are still in place, like the Anti-Terror Act and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). Just recently, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) filed an anti-terror law complaint against four individuals, namely Nathanael Santiago, Bayan Muna and Makabayan Coalition Secretary General, development worker Rosario Brenda Gonzalez, church lay worker Anasusa San Gabriel and Servillano Luna, Jr., campaign director and former secretary general of Anakpawis. The AFP are leveling false narratives of an encounter in an attempt to vilify the individuals.

It comes many years too late for the thousands of activists from the Philippines, the United States and all over the world, who have already been red-tagged by the fascist Philippine state. Some were extrajudicial killed, others imprisoned, and those overseas blacklisted or deported for their activism.

And so, we must not be content with this precedent-setting Supreme Court ruling. We remain committed in our demand to abolish the NTF-ELCAC who have been at the helm of these fascist attacks on activists and organizers. Junk the Anti-Terror Law, and hold all red-taggers and human rights violators accountable for their crimes against the people. Join the movement and resist fascism wherever it surfaces!