{"id":11299,"date":"2025-05-23T00:55:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T23:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=11299"},"modified":"2025-05-22T14:45:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T13:45:27","slug":"red-tagging-dominates-2025-mid-term-elections-violations-watchdogs-warned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/red-tagging-dominates-2025-mid-term-elections-violations-watchdogs-warned\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRed-tagging\u201d dominates 2025 mid-term elections violations, watchdogs warned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Election watchdogs raised<\/a> concerns over a sharp rise in campaign violations as Filipin@s casted their votes on Monday, May 12, 2025 for the congressional and local government elections with so-called \u201cred-tagging\u201d emerging as the most widespread and alarming offense in the 2025 polls.<\/p>\n

As of May 10, 2025, Vote Report PH recorded<\/a> 1,750 violations, an eightfold increase from 2022, with a notable number of red-tagging incidents, both online and offline.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed-tagging\u201d is<\/a> a practice of labeling individuals or organizations \u2014often without evidence \u2014 as communists or terrorists, which can expose them to harassment, violence, or legal repercussions. Pointing out its dangers to free speech and democratic discourse, Vote Report PH<\/a> and election watchdog Kontra Daya<\/a> called<\/a> on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to act against the reported \u201cred-tagging\u201d cases.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Red-tagging\u2019 not only violates Comelec Resolution No. 11116 but also endangers the lives of the victims,\u201d said<\/a> Prof. Danilo Arao, convenor of Kontra Daya.<\/p>\n

In an earlier press statement, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) also expressed<\/a> concern about the rise in electoral offenses, particularly \u201cred-tagging.\u201d It noted<\/a> that cases of alleged \u201cred-tagging\u201d have involved the use of deepfakes to spread disinformation, linking certain candidates and groups to the communist armed rebel group New People\u2019s Army.<\/p>\n

The CHR emphasized<\/a> that Resolution No. 11116, which was issued<\/a> by Comelec last February, \u201cexplicitly prohibits acts of vilification, labeling [or \u2018red-tagging\u2019], or guilt by association.\u201d These actions are now classified<\/a> as election offenses, following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Deduro v. Vinoya. Citing the decision, the CHR warned<\/a> that \u201cred-tagging\u201d endangers individuals\u2019 rights to life, liberty, and security, while also eroding human dignity and democratic values.<\/p>\n

Despite the Comelec resolution, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) reported<\/a> that nearly 79% of the violations it tracked as of April 30, 2025, involved \u201cred-tagging,\u201d frequently directed at progressive candidates. According to ICHRP, the Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan<\/a> (Makabayan) bloc and its allied party-list groups -Bayan Muna, Gabriela, ACT Teachers, and Kabataan – are reportedly the main targets<\/a> of \u201cred-tagging\u201d attacks.<\/p>\n

Rochelle Porras, coordinator of the Workers Electoral Watch (WE Watch), said<\/a> that \u201cred-tagging\u201d is more than labeling – it\u2019s a violent tactic meant to discredit candidates.<\/p>\n

The Makabayan<\/a> coalition had lodged<\/a> a formal complaint against the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), accusing it of \u201cred-tagging\u201d and defamation throughout the election campaign.<\/p>\n

The ICHRP criticized<\/a> the Marcos Jr. administration for failing to address \u201cred-tagging,\u201d including not abolishing the NTF-ELCAC. The group also warned<\/a> that using fear, intimidation, and disinformation to influence voters contradicts the principles of fair, free, and honest elections, especially ahead of the upcoming polls.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9 Raffy Lerma<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Election watchdogs raised concerns over a sharp rise in campaign violations as Filipin@s casted their votes on Monday, May 12, 2025 for the congressional and local government elections with so-called \u201cred-tagging\u201d emerging as the most widespread and alarming offense in the 2025 polls. As of May 10, 2025, Vote Report PH recorded 1,750 violations, an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5304,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,65,58,59,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktuelles-en","category-disinformation","category-human-rights-news","category-internal-affairs","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11299"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11336,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11299\/revisions\/11336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}