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MANILA – Southeast Asian parliamentarians on Thursday called on President Rodrigo Duterte to end a dangerous campaign to label opposition lawmakers that is supposedly an attempt to silence their critics.
“The red label has had extremely violent consequences in the Philippines, and the fact that we are seeing President Duterte leading such a threatening practice is absolutely unforgivable,” said Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament for Malaysia and President of ASEAN. Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said in a statement.
Santiago said that the red label not only tries to silence the political opposition and undermine democracy, but “also directly puts the lives of people at risk, particularly those who oppose its agenda.”
Duterte has been accusing progressive groups in Congress of being alleged legal fronts for the communist insurgency movement.
Members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives have denied these accusations.
The Philippine Senate began addressing the issue of red labels after some military officials labeled various opposition lawmakers and celebrities as supporters of communism who expressed dismay at the government’s response plans to COVID-19.
The constitutional expert Antonio Laviña, former dean of the Ateneo’s School of Government, urged the senators to criminalize red labels. But Durterte allegedly only laughed at the proposal, according to Senate President Vicente Sotto III.
“How can legislators be expected to fulfill their role of controlling the executive when they themselves are under attack? We urgently call on President Duterte and the Philippine government to stop labeling directly elected representatives as terrorists and allow opposition lawmakers to effectively carry out their mandates and freely express their opinions, ”said Santiago.
In its Parliamentarians at Risk report released in September, APHR said that the 6 lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc have been labeled in red. They have been red-tagged online and offline, in reports and news articles.
Red labels and the war on drugs are part of the widespread attack on democracy and human rights in the Philippines, the group said.
Recently, the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has found “reasonable grounds” to believe that Duterte’s anti-narcotics campaign for 4 years generated crimes against humanity.
“We call on parliamentarians in the Philippines and throughout Southeast Asia to use their positions to speak out against the practice of ‘red labeling’ in the Philippines, particularly by government officials towards political opponents, and to ensure that their colleagues can effectively fulfill their mandates as elected representatives of the people, ”said Mu Sochua, APHR Board member and former Cambodian MP.
Aside from legislators and celebrities, a group of lawyers and activist organizations have also been labeled in the red.
In October, Duterte said he wants the police and military to “keep quiet” while doing their jobs instead of being tagged.
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