Araullo, 41, a multiawarded documentarist, won a P2-million civil lawsuit for damages against ex-anticommunist task force spokesperson Lorraine Badoy-Partosa and Jeffrey Celiz at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) on Dec. 12, a little more than a year after he sued the pair for defamation.

The court said Badoy-Partosa and Celiz made unsubstantiated defamatory statements in their SMNI television program that Araullo is an “enabler, supporter and member” of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), and the National Democratic Front (NDF).

It applied the doctrine established in the landmark July 2023 Supreme Court ruling in the Deduro v. Maj. Gen. Vinoya writ of amparo case which declared that Red-tagging is a threat to fundamental rights, including the right to life, liberty and security.

In that case, the high court said Red-tagging is “a likely precursor to abduction or extrajudicial killing,” turning a Red-tagged person into a target for vigilantes, paramilitary groups, and even state agents. It noted that some individuals who had been thus labelled were eventually killed.

“This must end,” the high court said.

Struggle for press freedom

“I am very happy,” Araullo said in a news conference a week after Judge Dolly Rose R. Bolante-Prado of Quezon City RTC Branch 306 handed down her decision.

“I hope it contributes in a small way to the struggle for press freedom,” he said. “I am very happy that I was part of the team that secured this decision.”

Araullo said he did not expect the relatively early decision. “I want to stress that,” he said. “Even that component is unusual in the context of the Philippines, but it’s a pleasant surprise, and also I feel it illustrates how strong the case is.” 

According to Araullo, the court ruling may be used as a “possible potential defense mechanism” by journalists who have experienced the same kind of attacks and harassment from the likes of Badoy-Partosa and Celiz, whom he described as “unrepentant” and “committed” to what they are doing.

Badoy-Partosa is a physician and former spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. Celiz claims to be a former ranking CPP-NPA-NDF member, but this has been debunked by a former classmate.

In a statement she issued after the court handed down its decision, Badoy-Partosa said she expected it “from the very start” because she and Celiz were “prevented” from presenting their evidence when her lawyer failed to submit her pretrial brief on time.

“I lost this case on a mere technicality,” she said.

Later in a text message to reporters, she said: “To be clear, I am not paying [the P2-million award] at this point [because] this is under appeal.” 

Substantial decision

Cris Yambot, one of Araullo’s volunteer lawyers from the Movement Against Disinformation (MAD), said the decision was substantial and not only based on a technicality in which the defendants defaulted in presenting evidence.

Yambot said the Court of Appeals dismissed their petition on presenting their evidence because court rules on evidence “should not be belittled.” 

MAD convener Antonio La Viña believes that the camp of Badoy-Partosa and Celiz is either extremely negligent or does not have the evidence.

He said the pair would still be found liable if they had presented evidence because they would have just repeated the same defamatory statements they made against Araullo. 

Yambot said Red-tagging is “a form of disinformation.”

“As a species of disinformation, it is seen as a threat to fundamental rights of people. That’s why it must be stopped. It must be reined in, and penalties must be imposed on such actions,” she said. 

Yambot described Bolante-Prado’s decision as a landmark decision because, she said, it was the first time that the Deduro doctrine was applied by a regular court in a civil case for damages. 

Legal route

Araullo said the legal route is “an important option for many, especially those who directly feel the threat to their life and liberty by doing their work as journalists.” 

He said the attacks from Badoy-Partosa and Celiz did not stop him from doing his work because “I understand that it is part of our job in media that from time to time we would experience those kinds of challenges, especially if our stories hit powerful people.”

“This just means that you must be prepared for such risks,” he said.

Asked if the court decision has emboldened him to pursue his work and to make more documentaries and investigative reports, Araullo said: “As far as giving me more courage, I guess the answer is yes, only as far as this feeling that we secured a very important decision from the court. And I hope that it will make others think twice before they Red-tag, because this is very harmful especially to the work of journalists.” 

La Viña, recently appointed to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and a former dean of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government, said he and his colleagues in Araullo’s legal team did not want a criminal libel suit as they are against it as a matter of principle, especially after it has been used to harass journalists.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) also backed the civil case for defamation against Badoy-Partosa and Celiz instead of libel, which it described as the “archaic and anachronistic law that has been often used to silence critical reporting, criticism and dissent.”

The NUJP said the court was correct in pointing out that the right to free speech is not absolute and does not protect defamatory statements.

“The theory of the case is human relations,” La Viña said. “As a human being you have to act fairly, justly. You have to treat people with dignity.”

He added: “It is a very simple case … If you do something harmful to a fellow human being, there are consequences.” 

In July 2023, Araullo’s mother, Dr. Carol Araullo, one of the leaders in the resistance against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and now chair emeritus of the activist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), filed a similar suit against Badoy-Partosa and Celiz.

The pair said she was a member of the CPP central committee and the head of its National United Front Commission. They called her son, who is also a national goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, a “spawn” of a rebel leader.

That case is still pending.

Strong deterrent

In a statement, MAD said all victims of Red-tagging would benefit from the court’s decision as it would serve as a strong deterrent against the practice.

“It affirms the right to free speech while emphasizing the boundaries of that right when weaponized to spread disinformation and incite harm,” MAD said. “This landmark ruling paves the way for greater accountability and safeguards against baseless accusations and harassment.”

Read more: ‘Sigh of relief’ for high court ruling on grave threat posed by Red-tagging

The post Atom Araullo’s victory over Red-taggers also a win for others appeared first on CoverStory.

These were among the suggestions made by lawyer Kristina Conti, secretary-general of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) in the National Capital Region, in light of the recent high court ruling that was welcomed by activist groups concerned by certain government officials’ penchant to label them as front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).

The NUPL and its members were also Red-tagged by former NTF-Elcac officials Lorraine Badoy and retired Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. A complaint filed against Badoy and Parlade at the Office of the Ombudsman resulted last year in their being found guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and reprimanded for their baseless accusation against the NUPL as a communist front organization. The Ombudsman also warned them that they would be dealt with severely should there be a repeat of their offense.

“Somehow we can sigh with relief in a sense that now you can cite something legal,” Conti told CoverStory.ph in a phone interview. 

While before, those Red-tagged had to come up with an explanation on why it put them at risk, now “there are no two ways about it” following the “definitive statement” of the high court, Conti said. 

Writ of amparo

Last May 8, the Supreme Court ruled that Red-tagging, vilification, labelling, and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty, or security, and that this may justify the issuance of a writ of amparo.

Written by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda, the ruling granted the writ of amparo to Siegfred Deduro, a former Bayan Muna party list representative, who accused the military under Army Maj. Gen. Eric Vinoya of the 3rd Infantry Division of explicitly identifying him as part of the CPP-NPA.

Deduro said the allegations against him were made in a meeting of the Iloilo Provincial Peace and Order Council on June 19, 2020. Posters labelling him as a communist were also put up in different areas in Iloilo City.

He filed a petition for a writ of amparo—a remedy available to a person whose life, liberty and security are threatened by public or private individuals—at the Iloilo Regional Trial Court to stop Vinoya from Red-tagging him. But the court dismissed his petition, finding his complaint insufficient.

The Supreme Court reversed the Iloilo court’s dismissal of Deduro’s case, saying it effectively denied both Deduro and the Army due process.

Explicit recognition

In an interview with CoverStory.ph on May 17, Conti acknowledged that the ruling would not stop people from being vilified, killed, or caused to disappear if perpetrators carry out a policy to neutralize those they suspect to be tied to the communist insurgency.

“What will be more helpful, or what should follow this Supreme Court ruling, is for the Executive to explicitly recognize it, say it is a good turn of events, and that ‘we will not do Red- tagging’,” she said.

Asked if Red-tagging continues under the Marcos administration, Conti said there are still some officials prone to that practice. She observed that state forces invited to a recent Commission on Human Rights inquiry into Red tagging repeated the line of so-called communist front organizations in the country. 

“If you give them a platform, there are some of them who are inclined to Red-tag people or organizations. Maybe they are not as vocal [as before], but nonetheless, Red-tagging still exists as a practice,” the lawyer said.  

It will be a “good start” if the government abolishes the NTF-Elcac, in which members resort to Red-tagging people and organizations, Conti also said. She pointed out that the task force has “outlived its objective” of approaching the insurgency problem through a whole-of-nation approach because, she said, everyone in the government should be guided by this specific orientation.

With the high court ruling, Conti said, the NTF-Elcac should “seriously reconsider their misconstruction of Red-tagging as truth-tagging because this is misleading.”

She said the task force may now have a hard time hiding under “truth-tagging” given that the high court has “laid down the parameters” on Red-tagging.

Asked whether the NUPL would support moves to punish Red-tagging following the high court’s ruling, Conti said they are backing the bill filed by the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives that “contains consequences against attacks on human rights defenders.”

The measure is now consolidated under House Bill No. 77, or “An Act defining the rights and fundamental freedoms of human rights defenders, declaring state responsibilities, and instituting effective mechanisms for the protection and promotion of these rights and freedoms.”

According to Conti, Red-tagging can be included in the measure to make it comprehensive.

Libel complaints

In the absence of a law criminalizing Red-tagging, victims of the practice such as the NUPL file civil complaints, such as that against Badoy and Parlade, at the Office of the Ombudsman. Others, like Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chair emeritus Carol Araullo, have filed libel complaints in court against Badoy and other officials.

Araullo issued a statement lauding the high court’s “clear, unequivocal, legal and morally binding ruling on Red-tagging,” having been a “target and victim of malicious and unrelenting Red-tagging by former NTF-Elcac spokespersons or those empowered by said malevolent creation by the Duterte administration and retained by the Marcos Jr. [administration].”

“Finally there is no hiding behind the deceptive defense that no law exists defining and proscribing the evil practice as a means by notorious Red-taggers using official and other platforms to evade responsibility for their acts,” Araullo said, adding:

“It should also provide a warning to their unthinking followers, especially on social media, who parrot their line and contribute to what amounts to the public lynching of their targets.” 

Araullo called on those who had been maligned and had suffered the practice’s negative effects to file appropriate charges “against the most notorious Red-taggers as a form of legal pushback.” 

“I also demand accountability for the top officials of the NTF-Elcac. This ruling should lead to the abolition of this abomination,” she said.

In July 2023, Araullo filed a P2-million libel suit against Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz “for their incessant and wanton Red-tagging” that targeted her and her organization on the pair’s television program “Laban Kasama ang Bayan” over Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI).

The operation of SMNI—the broadcasting arm of the Kingdom of Jesus led by the televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s spiritual adviser—has been on indefinite suspension by the National Telecommunications Center since January.

Development workers

Meanwhile, Conti said the NUPL is now seeing cases being filed against alleged violators of the Anti-Terrorism Act. 

She said some of those now being charged are “not considered activists in the traditional sense” and include institutions such as the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, a religious organization that is now facing charges of terrorism financing.

“Now they are going after development workers and development groups … and even disaster relief organizations. We are wondering where this is going. It’s an attack on civil society in general,” she said.

Conti said it seemed that “anybody who is supplying aid to the poor, whom the government does not know or find suspicious,” Is being targeted.

She cited the case filed last year against Rosario Brenda Gonzales, “a project evaluator whom the government is now accusing as an NPA member.” Gonzales, a convener of Ascent, or the Assert Socio-Economic Initiatives Network, is facing terrorism charges along with leaders of other cause-oriented groups for allegedly participating in an encounter between rebels and Army troops in Nueva Ecija in October 2023.

Read more: Fighting back: Activist Carol Araullo takes Red-taggers to court

The post ‘Sigh of relief’ for high court ruling on grave threat posed by Red-tagging appeared first on CoverStory.

We caught the 2:30 p.m. show (the other was at 7 p.m.) on March 10, arriving at the theater more than an hour before showtime to buy walk-in tickets. By 2 p.m. the lobby was teeming with theater-goers. Ilagan chit-chatted with some friends before everyone, including activists Satur and Bobbie Ocampo, were all ushered inside.

An hour into the play, the thick silence becomes prickly when four ghosts take center stage. They were the victims of human rights violations in the Philippines—during the Spanish and US colonial eras, Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship, and the regimes of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte. They had entered the land of the living through a portal opened by two Red-tagged university professors, a former activist, and an artist-photographer playing the Spirit of the Glass to keep their minds off of the state’s manhunt.

The spirits narrate their sufferings through one of the professors whose third eye remains open.

“Spirit of the Glass” combines art and reality in championing human rights, which have become more difficult to uphold in the face of a strong effort at historical revisionism backed by seemingly unlimited resources. The fight for human rights continues to require a strong pushback, and the play provides just that.

Upended lives

Vivian (Elora Españo) and Balé (Carlos Dala) are Red-tagged by the state for their supposed subversive actions, and their lives are upended. They go into hiding in the province with security officer Badong (Edward Allen Solon) and Rory (Barbara Miguel) in Rory’s house. Rory inherited the house from her grandparents Fernando and Herminia who, in the 1950s, were Huks, or members of the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan. Rory insists that she’s an individualist, not an activist.

That Vivian and Balé are Red-tagged for their rights advocacy turns logic on its head, giving credence to the absurdity of the situation: Rights advocates exercising their rights are hunted down for fighting for what’s right. The manhunt raises the question of why advocating for human rights is considered evil in a democratic country. Shouldn’t citizens in a functioning democracy be free to speak out without fear of persecution?

It is this egregious absence of logic that Ilagan weaves into the play as an envisioned hope, and endgame, through dialogues particularly between the four—Vivian, Balé, Badong, and Rory—and the barangay (village) captain (Edru Abraham) who dropped in at the house unexpectedly.

The captain’s visit is brief but potent enough to emphasize the state’s strong capability for terror. His attendance at a seminar of the NTF-Elcac (or the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) on terrorism and activism accentuates his power even at “just” the village level. It has a chilling effect on the four, having—irony of all ironies—come face to face with the arm of the “law” in their sanctuary shortly after their arrival.

But llagan makes the impossible possible. Without resorting to threats of violence, the captain debates with the four on human rights and activism. Pushing the surreal turn of events, he promises, at the end of their discussion, that no harm will come to them and momentarily alleviates the bleakness of Vivian and Balé’s problem.

Fictional as Vivian and Balé are, their situation is firmly grounded on the ominous issuance by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) of Memorandum No. 2022-0663 on Aug. 9, 2022, banning five books. Lorraine Badoy, Rodrigo Duterte’s former communications undersecretary, had branded the works of Malou Jacob, Rommel B. Rodriguez, Dexter B. Cayanes, Don Pagusara, and Reuel M. Aguila as subversive, and Red-tagged the authors in the talk show “Laban Kasama ang Bayan” broadcast over Sonshine Media Network International, according to globalvoices.org.

In a subsequent report by Inquirer.net, the memorandum was rescinded a month later, when some KWF commissioners withdrew their signatures following a massive public outcry.

Disturbed spirits

Using spirits as characters is not a whimsical creative take by Ilagan. Significantly, the four spirits plus Fernando (Nanding Josef) and Herminia (Edna May Landicho) underscore the dire situation that even the dead are turning in their graves or, as llagan writes in Tagalog in the program notes, “protesting against Red-tagging and all human rights violations.”

From the beyond, Natalya, Rory’s yaya and “big sister,” narrates with Vivian’s help her savage end in the hands of her abductors. The brutality of Natalya’s story sounds fantastical, but the lines of reality and fiction blur precisely because a cloud of terror hangs overhead.

Fernando and Herminia have long been gone but they’re attuned to the goings-on in the modern world, including an acceptance of their granddaughter’s sexual preference in a partner. Even in the afterlife they’re supportive, making their home a halfway house for dead and living activists. Their legacy of fighting against injustice, which ended with Natalya’s death, is revived in Rory, who, after learning what has happened to Natalya, embraces activism wholeheartedly.

llagan does not gloss over the savagery, and why should he? The truth in its brutal vividness must be told to resist the present-day denialism that’s deodorizing the workings of evil.

The playwright himself has faced the evil lurking in the shadows all his life. Writing in Tagalog in the program notes, he tells of the day of interrogation and torture that he endured in Baguio City in 1994, and his being told afterwards by the officer who arrested him that he better not show his face again. And of that phone call on Jan. 2, 2023, in Quezon City, in which he was told: “We know what you’re doing. I still have some respect for you, but once the order comes from the top, even if you beg, there’s nothing you can do.”

Regular folks

Ilagan deconstructs the stereotypical image of activists as angry and coldhearted. He depicts Vivian, Balé, Badong, and Rory as level-headed yet funny, with regular-people worries such as love, everyday decisions, etc. (If Fernando and Herminia were alive, they would have been the model for couples, with their sweetness and attentiveness towards each other.)

Vivian and Balé may be professors, but they’re as awkward and inept as teenagers when it comes to romance. Neither wants to be the first to admit feelings for the other although their actions betray their words. Vivian is more extroverted than the slightly uptight, naive Balé, and has an annoying habit of saying “You’re mean” to counter or end arguments.

Badong is the foil to Bale’s seriousness. His jovial, happy-go-lucky manner provides the levity to the heaviness of the play, such as when he’d tease Vivian and Balé about their “relationship,” and his hilarious way of summoning the spirits when they start playing Spirit of the Glass.

Rory is Badong’s female version but is more bohemian in lifestyle. Nonetheless, she and Badong are two peas in a pod with vivacity and penchant for drinking. Compared to Vivian, who’s more structured in her ways. Rory is a free spirit oozing with confidence.

Collectively, the four can be any group of college friends taking a break from their studies, except that they have loftier ideals than their contemporaries.

Note of hope

Ilagan ends “Spirit of the Glass” on a note of hope, indicating order, albeit ephemeral, in the society. Vivian and Balé can return to their old lives, and before leaving for Manila, Balé finally admits his feelings for Vivian. Rory gathers her paintings and declares she’ll hold an exhibit honoring the slain activists. It is suggested that Badong returns to his ad-agency job.

The play presents to revisionists and doubters the glaring truths of a broken democracy where, in Ilagan’s words, “tyranny has resurrected, proclaiming authority over the land [and] history is being turned upside down.”

It reminds Filipinos of the necessity of vigilance, of speaking out, of fighting for their rights even if the struggle becomes perilous, and of realizing that no one is safe until past and ongoing crimes against the people are redressed.

“Spirit of the Glass” strongly drives home the point that in a functioning democracy, dialogue is essential: Asking, commenting, critiquing, and rebutting are fundamental tools of communication, not acts of terrorism.

The play needs another, longer, run.

Read more: Case of filmmaker, friends shows need for public awareness of warrantless arrest

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Castro was in a funeral home in Quezon City on Oct. 11 when someone sent her the link to a clip of Duterte making the threat on his “Gikan sa masa, para sa masa” (From the masses, for the masses) program on SMNI television a day earlier.

She was frightened when she heard Duterte say, “You, France, I want to kill all you communists,” Castro, 57, told CoverStory.ph on Tuesday after filing a criminal complaint of grave threats against the ex-president. 

“I was nervous and afraid,” she said. “That was what I first felt on top of my emotions in the middle of the wake for my father.” 

Her 83-year-old dad, Santiago Castro, died on Oct. 6 of respiratory failure.

“I know that whatever Duterte says, he will do,” the lawmaker said to explain her fears. “We saw that during his bloody war on drugs. We experienced that when he was the president because I know he has the capacity to kill.”

In the complaint she filed at the Quezon City prosecutor’s office, Castro said Duterte’s threat made her “immensely fearful for my life, safety and security” and also for her family.

She dismissed statements by Duterte defenders that it was just how the former president spoke—with much exaggeration.

Constant target

Castro said she and the other members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives had always been a target of Duterte’s Red-tagging, or the labelling of individuals and organizations as members or supporters of the communist insurgency, making them open targets of reprisals by state-supported armed groups.

“This time it’s different because there was a direct threat to my life,” she said in the interview. “He named me as one of those he wanted to kill. So, this is not the same vilification and Red-tagging that we have been receiving.” 

In her complaint, Castro said Duterte’s Red-tagging was “factually baseless and clearly malicious” but that she could not just dismiss them as jokes or benign threats in view of the many victims of extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests and forced disappearances of people who had been labelled as communists or rebel sympathizers.

She cited at least four teacher-unionists she personally knew and had worked with who were killed after being Red-tagged.

Tony La Viña, one of her lawyers, said the criminal complaint they had filed was the first against Duterte in the Philippines after he stepped down at noon on June 30 last year and lost presidential immunity from suit “for everything he does after that and for everything he did during his presidency.”

It was also “historic” in that it was a member of the House who had filed the first criminal charge against the “former very powerful president,” said La Viña, who is president of the Movement Against Disinformation (MAD).

Duterte, 78, is being investigated by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity in the alleged extrajudicial killing of thousands of victims of his war on drugs starting from the time he was mayor of Davao City until March 2019, when the withdrawal of the Philippines from the Rome Statute which created the tribunal took effect. He ordered the withdrawal a year earlier.

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who had filed one of the complaints against Duterte in the ICC, also submitted a recording of the former president admitting, in the same SMNI program, that he had used intelligence funds for assassinations in Davao, indicating that the targets were both suspected rebels and criminals.

“I really had them killed. That’s the truth,” Duterte said.

Sara’s confidential funds

Castro said she drew Duterte’s ire for scrutinizing the confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte, his daughter.

Castro and the Makabayan bloc had relentlessly inquired into the 2024 budget request for confidential funds of P500 million by the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and another P150 million for the Department of Education, which the Vice President concurrently heads. Sara Duterte’s request for the same amounts for this year breezed through Congress in 2022.

As the lawmakers probed into the confidential funds, the Commission on Audit reported that P125 million was spent by the OVP in just 11 days in December 2022.

Castro, her group and other opponents of confidential funds questioned why such allocations should go to agencies not involved in defense and security in the first place. The Makabayan’s position was even to abolish confidential funds altogether and use the money for health and social services.

The controversy created sufficient groundswell to move the House majority to decide to scrap the total P650 million in confidential funds requested by the Vice President for 2024 in addition to P610 million allocated to the Department of Agriculture, Department of Information and Communications Technology, and Department of Foreign Affairs.

The total amount of P1.26 billion in confidential funds that was removed from the five offices was realigned to the National Security Council, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency and the Philippine Coast Guard—agencies directly concerned with monitoring Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea.

In his TV program, Duterte said he had told his daughter to be “frank” about what she planned with her secret funds. He said she had told him that she wanted to use the funds to revive the ROTC (Reserved Officers Training Corps) program.

He said he told his daughter: “Pero ang una mong target d’yan [sa] intelligence fund mo, kayo, ikaw, France, kayong mga komunista ang gusto kong patayin.” (But the first target of your intelligence fund is you, France, I want to kill all you communists.)

‘Most rotten institution’

Apparently smarting from the scrapping of his daughter’s confidential funds, Duterte then lambasted the House, calling it the “most rotten institution” for handing out pork barrel funds, and accusing Speaker Martin Romualdez of engineering the attacks against the Vice President as part of a supposed plan to seek the presidency in 2028.

Romualdez is president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), the party that took Sara Duterte under its wing when she agreed to be the running mate of then presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2022 national elections.

The Vice President resigned as vice president of Lakas-CMD on May 19, two days after former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, her ally, was removed by Romualdez as the senior deputy speaker.

In a joint statement issued after Duterte made his remarks, the major political parties comprising the House criticized him for maligning it and for threatening one of its members.

“We call upon the former President and all parties involved to avoid making threats or insinuating harm against any member of the House or the institution itself,” they said in a statement on Oct. 14.

In addition to Lakas-CMD, the other parties were Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan, Nationalist People’s Coalition, Nacionalista Party and National Unity Party. The Partylist Coalition Foundation also signed the statement.

Castro thanked the political parties for coming to her defense and for standing up to the former president, the same parties that vigorously supported his administration. She said their stance was unexpected.

“I was surprised that those who had supported Duterte spoke up against what he did and protected our institution,” Castro said. “This is really unprecedented.”

Accountability

Under the Cybercrime Prevention Act, the Revised Penal Code punishment of six months imprisonment for grave threats could be raised to six years in prison, plus a fine of up to P100.000.

But La Vina said the case is not about seeking a particular penalty. “This is about accountability. President Duterte has gotten away from so many things,” he said, adding that Castro was standing up for other lawmakers and ordinary citizens.

Despite her fears that Duterte could make good on his threat because he still has “a lot of resources and political influence,” Castro said she had “no second thoughts” about filing the case against him.

“This will be an eye-opener to others like me who have suffered injustice or had been threatened, even the families of the victims of Duterte. That’s why I did not hesitate,” she said. “I believe this culture of impunity on the part of the former president must end.”

Castro also affirmed her faith in the judiciary and said she was willing to wait to attain justice: “I still have not lost hope that our judicial system will favor me.”

The post ‘You, France’: In historic move, lawmaker takes Duterte to court appeared first on CoverStory.

Araullo said Badoy-Partosa and Celiz, anchors of a program on SMNI television network, made “a series of unsubstantiated accusations and personal attacks” against him and his family, including his supposed links to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front (NDF).

His mother, Dr. Carol Pagaduan Araullo, a survivor of the struggle against dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and chair emeritus of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), filed a similar suit against the pair in July. (See “Fighting back: Activist Carol Araullo takes Red-taggers to court,” CoverStory.ph, July 20, 2023.)

“I initially chose to ignore their attacks owing to their apparent absurdity. But because I’ve seen how treacherous, persuasive, and harmful disinformation can be, especially when left unchecked, I have resolved to push back,” the 40-year-old GMA News journalist said.

Family’s safety, well-being

“I am doing this for the safety and well-being of my family, but I also hope it contributes in a modest way to protecting press freedom in general,” he said.

His lawyers have downloaded social media and video files of Badoy-Partosa and Celiz making outright claims against Araullo, who is also a national goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. 

One allegation is that Araullo is a CPP member “or at least an enabler,” according to one of his lawyers, Ayn Tolentino. The others are that Araullo is part of a “systematic, orchestrated attack against the government,” a “protector” of terrorists who uses his work as a journalist to “destroy and attack others” and make documentaries “faithful to the lies of the CPP-NPA-NDF.”

“Many times, he was called ‘spawn of an active CPP central committee leader,’” Tolentino said.

In the Philippines, Red-tagging, or labeling a person or a group as a member or supporter of the communist movement or a terrorist, has had grave, even fatal, consequences: Many individuals have been killed following such branding, since before the enactment of the antiterrorism law.

TV anchors

After serving as spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) during the Duterte administration, Badoy-Partosa joined SMNI as one of the anchors of the TV program “Laban Kasama ang Bayan.” 

Her co-anchor, Celiz, claims to be a former member of the NPA’s National Operations Command and chair of Bayan in Panay. One of his fellow activists and classmate has expressed serious doubts about his claims.

In a “message and reply” to Araullo and his mother, Celiz said in Filipino on his Facebook page: “You first condemn, reject and fight the terrorism, arson, killings of civilians, ambushes against soldiers and police, the recruitment of the youth and also the widespread extortion by the CPP-NPA-NDF and their allied groups and individuals, that the CPP-NPA-NDF had committed against the people … before you act high and mighty in filing complaints of damages versus me and Dr. Lorraine Badoy.”

Celiz, who also uses the name Ka Eric Almendras, said Araullo’s “failure and refusal” to do so “is a clear indication of the validity of our assertions against you and your mother.”

Badoy-Partosa has yet to issue a separate statement as of this writing.

Threat of beheading

Atom Araullo said he was experiencing “emotional and psychological stress” from the “violent reactions” of the supporters of Badoy-Partosa and Celiz to their claims on social media, including one who threatened to behead him.

He said his ability to work and visit places had been restricted because of concern for his safety.

“You do not know what people who read their lies would do to you,” he said. “In going around various places to do stories, that is what I think about. There is no predicting how people will react to this kind of disinformation, especially since this is specifically designed to whip up hatred against myself and my family.”

Atom Araullo said there were parts of the country, mostly in the provinces, where he had been advised to be “extra careful” because certain individuals and groups believed that they must despise or confront him based on what they had read on social media against him.

“Red-tagging is just a specific form of intimidating members of the media whose reporting does not fit their particular agenda,” he said. “I think this is wrong and the instigators of this kind of disinformation must be held accountable.”

Chilling effect on journalists

Lawyer Rico Domingo, lead convenor of the Movement Against Disinformation, said Red-taggers “distort the function of journalists” and undermine democracy.

“Red-tagging actually stifles dissent and impinges on the freedom of the press and expression. This has a chilling effect on journalists,” he said.

Atom Araullo’s lead lawyer, Antonio La Viña, former dean of the Ateneo de Manila University’s School of Government, said Badoy-Partosa, Celiz and their ilk had been left alone over the years to do their work without much resistance, building their “sense of impunity” as a result.

He said the civil case in the Quezon City Regional Trial Court could reach the Supreme Court and take two to five years to resolve, and if they win, the damage award may be smaller than what they were seeking.

“But why is Atom filing this case if it takes that long?” La Vina said. “It is because accountability is important. Deterrence is important. It is important that Red-taggers know that there are consequences for what they are doing.”

Colleague Support

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the online independent news organization Bulatlat, said they supported Atom Araullo.

The NUJP said the communist-terrorist label on Araullo and others “is used to justify arrests, trumped-up charges, surveillance and other forms of harassment against human rights defenders, including journalists.”

“Some of our colleagues have had to relocate, affecting the important work they do, and the communities they serve,” it said in a statement.

NUJP and some of its officers have been repeatedly Red-tagged and had recorded 19 incidents of Red-tagging under the Marcos administration.

Kristina Conti, Atom Araullo’s mother’s counsel and member of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said Partosa and Celiz just recently received a summons from Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Rochelle Yvette Dakanay-Galano. They were given 30 days to respond to her separate P2.15 million civil suit.

“Red-tagging is a peculiar attack not only on reputation, but on physical safety as well,” the NUPL said. “This is why it is urgent to expose the peddled lies and confront the serious prejudices against activists, journalists, civic leaders, and all those who simply dare speak up.”

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Araullo said in a statement that she filed the first such damage suit against Lorraine Badoy Partosa and Jeffrey Celiz, anchors of the program  “Laban Kasama ang Bayan” of the SMNI TV network owned by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, “because they have incessantly and wantonly engaged in a vilification spree to demonize me and tar my good name and that of my organization.”

The tandem had identified Araullo in their program as a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) central committee, specifically as an “urban operative” for the insurgents. Araullo said she wanted to “exact accountability for their false, baseless and malicious public statements.

Partosa is a former spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) and an ardent supporter of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war on drugs and anti-insurgency campaign. 

Celiz, aka “Ka Eric,” claims to be a former member of the “National Operations Command” (NOC) of the New People’s Army (NPA). He served for a time as Bayan chair in Panay.

Araullo said her purpose in filing the case was to “stop this pernicious practice not only against me and other social activists but [also] for many more who they have categorized as ‘enemies of the state’ because of their critical or oppositionist stance … to government policies or programs and crimes and abuses committed by persons in authority.”

She said artists, lawyers, doctors, human rights advocates, trade unionists, teachers, land reform and environment protection advocates and journalists, including her son, documentarist Atom Araullo, were among the “Red-tagging” victims of Partosa and Celiz.

Red-tagging, or identifying persons or groups as part of the communist insurgency, opens individuals to persecution or prosecution and even deadly attacks by state authorities or their agents.

‘Nuisance’ case

In a comment sent Thursday to CoverStory.ph, Partosa scoffed at the damage suit and challenged Araullo to instead charge her with libel “to put me behind bars with a hefty fee.”

“The mass murders of Filipinos and all the other grievous crimes against us would not have been possible without operatives like Carol Araullo,” Partosa said. “These nuisance cases mean nothing to me.” 

Earlier, Araullo told CoverStory that she decided to file a damage suit because of her and other activists’ push to decriminalize libel in order to prevent its being weaponized against legitimate dissent and critical media reporting.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday after Bayan chair Teddy Casino reported on the filing of the damage suit, Partosa said she asked her lawyer what a “civil case” meant. She quoted her lawyer as saying: “You wounded their feelings and they want you to pay. Baka wala ng pera talaga ang CPP (Maybe the CPP really doesn’t have any more money). Fundraising!”

“Then we had a good laugh because ‘This is a useless case. A crybaby case,’” Partosa said.

She said Araullo and other Bayan leaders were afraid “because we speak the truth,” and added: “Prove me wrong, Carol. Sue us for libel. And wait for our counter lawsuit against you communist terrorist operatives. We’ll give you something to lose sleep over.”

The suit against Partosa and Celiz covers the period from July 2021 to this year,

During one program that aired last Jan. 30, Celiz, speaking in Filipino, said they were challenging Araullo to condemn the CPP, NPA and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

“And because you defend them and cover up their crimes—killings, arson, bombings, ambuscades and the destruction of our country—and since you could not condemn these, and you even cover these up, we challenge you: Why not join them?” he said, adding that it was a challenge to Bayan and its leaders.

“It happens that you are a leader of Bayan and you are a leader also of the communist party and you have direct knowledge and experience and personal knowledge” about the communist underground, Celiz said.

He said Araullo’s “tasking” from the party’s National United Front Commission was to be an “urban operative” inside Bayan.

Partosa, addressing Araullo, said the challenge was “on par because you said you understand that they are fighting for something.”

“Your work is to provide protection and support to the NPA. You are not NPA, Carol. No one is saying that,” she said.

Celiz had no doubt that Araullo was and still is a senior CPP officer. “I confirm that she is a member of the central committee,” he said. “Why? Because I should know. That is where I came from. I know the organization and I was with members of the central committee who identified you when I was in the NPA national operations command.”

Willful damage and injury

Araullo charged Partosa and Celiz with offenses penalized under the Civil Code of the Philippines for, among others, not observing honesty and good faith with another person, and willfully causing damage and injury “contrary to morals, good customs or public policy.”

She refused to bow to Partosa and Celiz’s demand that she denounce the rebels. “In the first place, I do not want to play into their Red-tagging schemes—that I need to prove my innocence rather than they prove their baseless charges,” she told CoverStory. “But more than that, I must say that I will not denounce the CPP-NPA because I know historically and currently—whether you agree with their methods or not—there are legitimate reasons for why they have taken up arms against the government.” 

She said that instead of all-out military suppression of the insurgency that is more than half a century old, its roots should be resolved in a peaceful manner by resuming peace negotiations with the NDFP.

Duterte terminated the peace talks in 2017, alleging that the NPA continued to stage armed attacks against soldiers while negotiations were ongoing. Later, he said he could not give in to the rebel demand for “power sharing,” which was not on the agenda of the talks.

Araullo said the negotiations should not be “about surrender, not about cooptation, but about really addressing the underlying causes of why people take up arms—socioeconomic, political, and even constitutional.”

Now 69, Araullo was one of the most prominent student activists in the 1970s. She was elected vice chair of the University of the Philippines Student Council, along with Jaime Galvez Tan as chair, when their party swept the UP polls in 1972. They were never able to take their seats as then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. had imposed martial law. Galvez-Tan once served as health secretary. 

Araullo was among thousands of political activists, opponents and critics of Marcos who were arrested and imprisoned. 

After her release, she continued her studies. She graduated from the UP College of Medicine in 1979 and served as a community doctor. She was a founding member of the Medical Action Group and Health Alliance for Democracy before serving as Bayan chair in 2009.

Best and brightest

In her interview with CoverStory, Araullo lamented the loss of many fellow activists during the Marcos dictatorship and in the years that followed.

“I knew them as youths—the best and brightest of that generation,” she said. “Many of them gave up their lives, and even today, those who have died … impressed me as being very rational. They studied the conditions of the country and are proposing solutions—not cosmetic solutions, but real solutions.”

She expressed surprise at the sudden turnaround particularly of Partosa, who had served as assistant secretary to Social Work Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, also a ‘70s student leader whose confirmation was eventually rejected by the Commission on Appointment.

“I met her personally during the confirmation hearing for Judy Taguiwalo,” Araullo said of Partosa. “She greeted me like we had known each other for a long time. She was very sweet then.”

Doubts

Lawyer Jobert I. Pahilga, a founding member of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers—another group linked by both Partosa and Celiz to the CPP-NPA-NDFP—raised serious doubts about Celiz’s claim of having been a member of the NPA and its leading body, the NOC. 

Celiz had said he was a CPP member from 1988 to 2015 and was part of the NPA NOC from 2002 until March 2015.

“How can he be a member of the NPA in 1994 to 2004 when he was an active student and mass leader of legal activists in Iloilo City?” said Pahilga, Celiz’s high school classmate and fellow activist at the Western Visayas State University.

“He was even the spokesperson and became the chairperson of Bayan Panay from the year 2000 to 2004,” Pahilga wrote in the online newspaper Manila Today on Nov. 3, 2020.

After his years in activism, Celiz took various jobs, including serving as political strategist and later spokesperson for then Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog in 2010-2016. 

When Duterte named a certain “Bayan Congressman Celiz” in August 2016 as a “drug personality” in Iloilo City, at about the same time that Mabilog also was tagged as a drug lord, Celiz disappeared, according to Pahilga.

Araullo said Partosa and Celiz labelled her and others as either members or supporters of the rebel movement by mere association.

“It was one plus one equals three to them,” she said, and cited her son Atom, 40, as a victim: “Basically, if you look at all that they are saying against Atom, he is my son and so he must be like this. They say his documentaries that criticize the government are from the CPP-NPA playbook.”

She said “Red-tagging has seeped down” to local communities and police stations. One in Cagayan de Oro City already tagged her as a rebel supporter, she said.

‘Well-funded platform’

Initially, Araullo said, she did not want to press charges against Partosa and Celiz for their allegations against her.

“Why should I dignify them? If you pay attention and respond on social media, that’s exactly what they want. So, let it die a natural death,” she said. “But they have a platform which is well-funded.”

Her friends and family also said that if she did not file a case, her position would look weak and she would appear guilty, Araullo said.

“If something positive comes out of this, it would help others—those in the communities, the urban poor organizers, the teachers—who are being harassed and have no time, resources and support network to file cases,” she said.

Araullo said she was “acutely aware” that she was “in the crosshairs of the NTF-Elcac,” and that her movements, telephone and social media accounts were being monitored.

She said she had to take certain security measures, once declining to join an out-of-town trip with her siblings then visiting from overseas. 

“I am stressed,” she declared. “I am not impervious to these things. Just watching their show stresses me because of the brazenness and the gall to lie just like that. I feel so insulted.” 

Araullo has survived a bout with cancer, which is of the kind that “does not go away” but is tamed by chemotherapy.

“Any time I am under stress, it could be triggered. I am also immunocompromised,” she said. “It’s taken a toll. But life goes on. I am not going to let idiots dictate what I am going to do.”

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