When television journalist Atom Araullo won a landmark P2-million defamation lawsuit last December for being Red-tagged by Jeffrey Celiz and Lorraine Badoy-Partosa, Celiz was unmoved and vowed to “persevere” in fighting “communist terrorism.”

“I shall not waver in this patriotic cause that I willingly and voluntarily embraced,” said the 53-year-old, who claims to be a former ranking member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA).

Celiz apparently plans to accomplish his mission from Canada, where he hopes to be granted political asylum.

He has left the country to escape alleged harassment and persecution by the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the House of Representatives led by Speaker Martin Romualdez, he said in his interview with GMA Integrated News in New York that was published last week.

According to Celiz, he and his family had become targets of the CPP-NPA and the communist-led umbrella group National Democratic Front since he began openly denouncing the rebel movement in 2020.

He now alleges that the “evil” Marcos-Romualdez “regime” is working with communist rebels against former president Rodrigo Duterte, whom he supports, to ruin the country.

The Canadian Embassy in Manila refused to comment on Celiz’s asylum plan.

It said that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the government ministry which manages Canada’s immigration and refugee protection programs, would not comment on “case-specific inquiries.”

Undersecretary Joel Egco, spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, said Celiz no longer works for the NTF-Elcac and declined to comment on his asylum bid.

‘To take myself away’

“The purpose [of leaving the Philippines] is to really take myself away from the abusive arrest order—which may be issued or already issued—by the House of Representatives,” Celiz explained in his GMA interview.

He visited Canada in February and March, ahead of the House tri-comm’s April 8 decision to declare him, along with Badoy-Partosa and two other “influencers,” in contempt for failing to attend its hearings on fake news and misinformation despite repeated summonses and to order their detention.

The House tri-comm is composed of the committees on public order and safety, on information and communications technology, and on public information.

Celiz and Badoy-Partosa, a former spokesperson for the NTF-Elcac, were detained briefly in the House last December—he for refusing to identify his source for a false claim on the travel expenses of Speaker Romualdez and she for her conflicting statements about their earnings as hosts of a program on the SMNI TV network owned by Apollo Quiboloy, founder of the religious sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC).

In a pre-departure post at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on March 21, Celiz said he was leaving the country without seeing his family.

He said he was doing “this tactical option of self-preservation for long term and strategic fight in order to sustain the struggle against the evil regime of Marcos-Romualdez and their communist terrorist conspirators.”

He claimed to hold insider information that if he remained in the country, he would be arrested and ordered held, not in the House detention facility, but in a city jail where he would be killed in an alleged plot by the administration in collusion with communist rebels.

Other charges

Celiz has also been charged with inciting to sedition by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group for allegedly calling for resistance against police attempts to arrest Quiboloy in Davao City last August. The KOJC founder was eventually arrested and is now in a Pasig City jail while on trial for qualified human trafficking, a nonbailable offense.

As well, Celiz faces two separate damage suits filed by Atom Araullo’s mother, Carol Araullo, chair emerita of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, and former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño for “baseless and malicious Red-tagging.”

A Red-tag associates persons or groups with the communist insurgency, which opens them to various forms of harassment, intimidation and attacks.

The Supreme Court ruled in May 2024 that Red-tagging constitutes a threat to a person’s right to life, liberty, or security. It said Red-tagging would likely lead to abduction or extrajudicial killing by vigilantes, paramilitary groups, or even state agents.

Human rights groups said some activists, environmentalists, and human rights defenders who were Red-tagged had been killed by suspected state agents.

In the GMA interview, Celiz said seeking political asylum was “an option” to protect his civil and political rights under an international convention. “People who are persecuted in their country by their own government can avail [themselves] of that,” he said.

Another prominent pro-Duterte personality, former presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, has applied for political asylum in the Netherlands.

Celiz has not confirmed publicly that he had already applied for asylum in Canada, but it’s possible that he did.

Rules for asylum

Under its Immigration, Refugee and Protection Act (IRPA), Canada offers “safe haven” to individuals with a “well-founded fear” of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group, as well as those at risk of torture or cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

Canada, however, will refuse to grant asylum to persons who have committed serious violations of human rights and international rights such as war crimes or crimes against humanity.

The IRPA, which sets the rules for granting “refugee protection,” instructs applicants to make an asylum claim at the port of entry or at an inland IRCC or Canada Border Services Agency office.

The Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States, which has been in effect since 2004, requires refugee claimants to seek asylum in the first safe country they arrive in—either the United States or Canada.

According to Celiz’s Facebook posts, he visited Canada in February and in March and then travelled to the United States in April. He said he would return to Canada in May.

Various groups critical of Celiz, the NTF-Elcac and their Red-tagging immediately raised alarm about his planned asylum bid, saying they would oppose it.

Migrante Canada, Bayan Canada and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, which were among the groups attacked by Celiz, wrote IRCC Minister Marc Miller and Minister of Public Safety David J. McGuinty on April 25 to express concern about Celiz’s presence in Canada.

They said that despite the court ruling against Celiz in the case filed by Atom Araullo, he “continues his Red-tagging activities, now extending his harmful propaganda to Canada.”

“His presence and actions endanger individuals, including protected persons and convention refugees, who have sought safety in Canada after being persecuted due to Red-tagging,” they said.

They urged the Canadian government to take actions against Celiz, including declaring him inadmissible to that country and revoking his visa.

Bayan Canada earlier said the Canadian government should apply Bill S-226 on Celiz. The measure bars the entry into Canada of foreigners responsible for gross violations of human rights.

Accountability

Carol Araullo said in a statement to CoverStory that “by no stretch of the imagination can [Celiz] claim to be a victim of political persecution or any kind of oppression whatsoever.”

“What is clear is that Celiz merely wishes to avoid accountability for his defamatory statements and the danger to life, liberty and security that his Red-tagging inflicts on his targets,” she said.

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), which has represented Red-tagged activists and human rights advocates, said Celiz is “not a dissident” seeking refuge from political persecution but a “paid propagandist” evading accountability.

“Now, confronted with legal reckoning, he recasts himself as the persecuted, insulting those who have been harassed or imprisoned, and dishonoring the memory of those who were disappeared or killed for real acts of dissent,” the NUPL said in a statement.

“Asylum, in international law, is a shield for the persecuted, not a hiding place for the persecutors,” it said. “There must be no sanctuary for lies and no refuge from accountability.”

NUPL secretary general Josalee S. Deinla told CoverStory that her group and some of its clients plan to formally request the Canadian government to reject Celiz’s application for asylum.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan, another Celiz target, disclosed plans to “make representations” with the Canadian government to oppose his application.

Under the IRPA, Canada allows third parties to “provide information or undertake responsibilities” to either support or oppose asylum bids.

The Canadian government has said that asylum should not be used as a shortcut to immigration, and that applicants would be subjected to a “rigorous screening” to determine whether they are eligible for refugee protection.

Last January, a Canadian federal judge upheld a decision by the Immigration Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board denying permanent residency to a former Filipino police officer for alleged crimes against humanity for his involvement in Duterte’s brutal “war on drugs.”  

The judge determined that the officer had made a “voluntary, knowing, and significant contribution” to the bloody campaign. 

Duterte himself is charged with crimes against humanity in connection with that antidrug campaign and is now awaiting trial in the Netherlands.

Read more: Atom Araullo’s victory over Red-taggers also a win for others