Church and aid groups tied to communist terror

By Mata Press Service

The Philippines’ armed forces have labeled 18 groups, some with links to Canada, as fronts for “communist terrorism”, which critics said will put the lives of its members at risk.

Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Major General Reuben Basiao, in a presentation to Congress, named the 18 entities, including Oxfam Philippines, the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) and leftist women’s political advocacy organization Gabriela Women’s Party.

While in other countries, identifying someone as a communist militant might be written off as “besmirching” their good name, in the Philippines “red-tagging” – as the practice is known locally – “causes death”, said Neri Colemnares, chairman of the leftist political group Bayan Muna and head of the Philippines’ National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL).

The former congressman pointed to the unsolved murders of activist Randy Malayao, shot dead while sleeping on a bus in January, and human rights lawyer Ben Ramos, who was gunned down in a drive-by shooting last November. Both had been “red-tagged” before their deaths.

Fellow human rights lawyer Criselda Heredia, an NUPL member, survived having her car sprayed with bullets by gunmen riding motorcycles in an armed ambush in September this year. She had previously faced accusations of being a communist sympathizer.

Heredia became one of the 61 lawyers to be attacked, with 49 killed, in the three years since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power, according to the International Coalition of Human Rights in the Philippines.

One of the groups targeted is Gabriela or General Assembly Binding Women for Reforms, Integrity, Education, Leadership, and Action, which has affiliates in B.C. and Ontario, that are active in condemning political dissent in the Philippines.

Another is the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), which is a fellowship of Protestant, non-Roman Catholic Churches, and service-oriented organizations in the Philippines.

The NCCP works on a variety of projects, with the United Church of Canada (UCC), the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC), the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (CCODP) and KAIROS — the Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiative.

The Philippine government has been fighting Asia’s longest-running insurgency, led by the 51-year-old Communist Party of the Philippines and its paramilitary arm the New People’s Army, since the 1970s, reports SCMP.com

Manila treats both as terrorist groups, and a law passed in 2012 means anyone found to be supporting terrorism can be jailed for as much as 40 years and fined up to 1 million pesos (US$19,780).

The practice of red-tagging was first introduced by the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986, as a way of targeting his critics and opponents, but succeeding governments have also produced their own list of communist enemies of the state.

Duterte’s government uses red-tagging “to discredit people who raise difficult issues like corruption, human rights, and poverty”, said Colmenares, adding that “it’s easier to file cases against them and silence them” by linking them to outlawed paramilitary organizations.

In a statement, Oxfam Philippines said it “categorically denies” having any links to communist terrorists and described the implication as “most troubling”.

“These allegations affect not only us, but also put the communities and partners we work with at risk,” it said.

The NCCP, as the largest association of non-Catholic churches in the country, held its own press conference to denounce being red-tagged.

The Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, a group of church leaders from various denominations, said in a statement “we stand firm with the NCCP”.

“Indiscriminately labeling persons and organizations create an atmosphere of fear and danger”, which could “threaten the lives of the labeled persons or that of the organizations’ staff and their families”, it said.