The Justice secretary must have meant well beyond wanting to improve the country’s forensic pathology when he invited the UN special rapporteurs to our country during the recent United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. That, for me, made his attendance in the said meeting fruitful. And it’s a welcome development.
My disbelief, however, is on his claim of red-tagging to be “a mere invention of the left.” I found the statement to be askew and fallacious. Will the word crook ever come from the corrupt to label the corrupt? And will the word scoundrel emanate from plunderers and robbers to describe themselves?
“There is no such national policy of red-tagging” in the Philippines, Secretary Boying Remulla assured the officials of UNHRC. But may I ask: Is there a need for such a policy when authorities have been freely doing the thing, unchecked and uncensored, much less by the courts?
I am out and out in support of the fight against insurrection of every kind because rebellion in any form is bad and evil, be it in government or family. I have no qualms about beating and ending the local communist insurgency (sans violence except for defense). But I have the strong compulsion and reasons to oppose red-tagging.
Looking at how authorities have been “pursuing” the local communists or so-called terrorists, red-tagging appears to be the way they unfairly and recklessly accuse just about everyone who thinks differently from the way they think. In fact, they don’t have to say “red” to red-tag somebody. And such is violence (equally destructive) – in silent mode. Ergo, it was where it all started and originated – the red-tagging.
Countless red-tagged individuals have suffered violence, humiliation, discrimination, tainted reputation, and some even died/killed. For the country to progress, the government needs and must listen to dissenters who are not necessarily espousing the communist ideology. After all, it is in what they are saying that government and people may perhaps be best served.
Go forward, not backward.
