We continuously conduct fact finding missions and humanitarian missions to help the victims of human rights violations in order to claim our democratic spaces. We aim to expose the state sponsored attacks in many provinces in Southern Tagalog. But this is what red-tagging does: giving the government vast rights to conduct surveillance and label groups or people as terrorists without due process, or in fact any clarity on how that label can be removed afterwards. This is clearly in violation of international laws and standards. The law authorises the police and military to hold people for up to 24 days without a warrant or charge. The military also accused Pecayo of being a member of the New People’s Army (NPA), which is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Rementilla and Rubia were allegedly summoned on June 26 after Karapatan Southern Tagalog got a copy of a subpoena accusing them of breaching Section 12 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), or giving material assistance to terrorists. As a result, the mission’s representatives, represented by Rubia and Rementilla, filed a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights on August 1, 2022. Members of the 59th Infantry Battalion harassed and intimidated the participants of that mission. Later, the military stated that people who took part in the fact-finding mission were giving terrorists material assistance. In July 2022, Jasmin Rubia, Kenneth Rementilla, and Hailey Pecayo took part in a fact-finding mission to look into the alleged murder of Kyllene Casao, a 9-year-old girl, and Maximino Digno, a 50-year-old farmer, by members of the 59th Infantry Battalion on July 18 in Taysan, Batangas. It has a very bloody history and unfortunately remains common practice to this day. One insidious instance commonly used against activists and human rights defenders is red-tagging, or branding people as communists or terrorists. You’re probably pretty familiar with the various things governments do to stay in power, one of which is through unjust laws and trumped up charges. In this podcast, we talk a lot about the state of media freedom and the erosion of democracy in Southeast Asia. New Naratif is a movement to democratise democracy in Southeast Asia, and this podcast is one of the ways we attempt to do just that.

I’m your host, Bonnibel Rambatan, Editorial Manager for New Naratif. Welcome to New Naratif’s Southeast Asia Dispatches.

Edwin rosario