{"id":13223,"date":"2026-05-22T06:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T05:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=13223"},"modified":"2026-05-21T16:25:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T15:25:34","slug":"chr-calls-for-legislation-on-red-tagging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/chr-calls-for-legislation-on-red-tagging\/","title":{"rendered":"CHR calls for legislation on \u201cred-tagging\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has <a href=\"https:\/\/chr.gov.ph\/chr-resource\/national-inquiry-on-red-tagging-national-inquiry-on-the-current-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines-with-a-focus-on-incidents-of-red-tagging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">issued<\/a> a renewed and urgent plea for the passage of legislation specifically criminalizing the so-called \u201cred-tagging\u201d practice, following the release of its latest inquiry report on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>The commission\u2019s findings <a href=\"https:\/\/chr.gov.ph\/chr-resource\/national-inquiry-on-red-tagging-national-inquiry-on-the-current-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines-with-a-focus-on-incidents-of-red-tagging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">show<\/a> persistent and grave threats faced by human rights defenders, journalists, activists, and other civil society actors in the Philippines due to the unchecked practice of \u201cred-tagging\u201d \u2013 meaning, labelling individuals, organizations, or groups as supporters of the communist insurgency or terrorists, often without evidence or due process.<\/p>\n<p>The CHR\u2019s 2025 National Inquiry <a href=\"https:\/\/chr.gov.ph\/chr-resource\/national-inquiry-on-red-tagging-national-inquiry-on-the-current-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines-with-a-focus-on-incidents-of-red-tagging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">adopted<\/a> a participatory approach through public hearings, sworn statements, and expert input from government, legal scholars and practitioners, and civil society, including human rights defenders with personal accounts of \u201cred-tagging,\u201d conducted across Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRed- tagging,\u201d according to the report, is an entrenched pattern that <a href=\"https:\/\/chr.gov.ph\/chr-resource\/national-inquiry-on-red-tagging-national-inquiry-on-the-current-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines-with-a-focus-on-incidents-of-red-tagging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">targets<\/a> a wide range of individuals, including labor leaders, indigenous peoples, and dissenters, exposing them to harassment, violence, and extrajudicial killings.<\/p>\n<p>The CHR <a href=\"https:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/2224257\/chr-renews-call-to-end-red-tagging-citing-real-and-well-founded-risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pointed<\/a> out that without a law that clearly defines and criminalizes \u201cred-tagging,\u201d protection is inconsistent and accountability is limited.<\/p>\n<p>The CHR mainly <a href=\"https:\/\/rightsreport.org\/2026\/05\/06\/redtagging-chr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recommends<\/a> passing a law that clearly defines and punishes \u201cred-tagging,\u201d reviewing and reforming existing counterterrorism laws (especially the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020), strengthening legal protections (such as writs of amparo and habeas data), and creating a government policy that bans \u201cred-tagging\u201d across all sectors (not just in the labor sector as based on Executive Order No. 97).<\/p>\n<p>Writs of amparo and habeas data are legal remedies in the Philippines designated to protect individuals whose rights to life, liberty, and security are threatened.<\/p>\n<p>The CHR <a href=\"https:\/\/chr.gov.ph\/chr-resource\/national-inquiry-on-red-tagging-national-inquiry-on-the-current-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines-with-a-focus-on-incidents-of-red-tagging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposes<\/a> a comprehensive judicial definition of \u201cred-tagging\u201d that includes, among others:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Labelling or vilifying individuals as subversive, communist, or terrorist without due process, often based solely on their advocacy or opinions<\/li>\n<li>Acts carried out or supported by public officers or the state, and disseminated through any medium<\/li>\n<li>Harm that may be reputational, physical, psychological, or economic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A legally defined definition is critical, the CHR <a href=\"https:\/\/chr.gov.ph\/chr-resource\/national-inquiry-on-red-tagging-national-inquiry-on-the-current-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines-with-a-focus-on-incidents-of-red-tagging\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argues<\/a>, to close protection gaps and provide a clear basis for prosecution and redress. Without it, \u201cred-tagging\u201d is still a \u201charmless label\u201d in the eyes of the law, despite its real and well-founded risks.<\/p>\n<p>Although there are existing legal remedies, the lack of a specific law against \u201cred-tagging\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/2224257\/chr-renews-call-to-end-red-tagging-citing-real-and-well-founded-risk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">leads<\/a> to inconsistent protection and reduced accountability.<\/p>\n<p>Recent executive actions, like Executive Order No. 97 (2025), only partially <a href=\"https:\/\/rightsreport.org\/2026\/05\/06\/redtagging-chr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">address<\/a> the issue, focusing on labor organisations and lacking meaningful penalties for violators.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier orders, like Executive Order No. 70 (2018), which created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), have been criticized for <a href=\"https:\/\/rightsreport.org\/2026\/05\/06\/redtagging-chr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">institutionalizing<\/a> \u201cred-tagging\u201d rather than curbing it.<\/p>\n<p>The CHR <a href=\"https:\/\/rightsreport.org\/2026\/05\/06\/redtagging-chr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">calls<\/a> for an independent review of Executive Order Nr. 70 and points out that government agencies remain the primary sources of \u201cred-tagging\u201d incidents.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Commission_on_Human_Rights_(CHR)_-_Republic_of_the_Philippines.svg<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has issued a renewed and urgent plea for the passage of legislation specifically criminalizing the so-called \u201cred-tagging\u201d practice, following the release of its latest inquiry report on the issue. The commission\u2019s findings show persistent and grave threats faced by human rights defenders, journalists, activists, and other civil society actors [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7015,"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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13223","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=13223"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13290,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13223\/revisions\/13290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}