Today, we face the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security to assert that red-tagging is anathema to democracy and human rights.

Magandang araw po, Mr. Chair.

Eleven years ago, 58 individuals, including 32 journalists and media workers, were brutally killed in a bloody massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao. For more than a decade, the families of the victims as well as journalists in the country have been relentless and tireless in their pursuit of justice — and on December 19 last year, Datu Andal “Unsay” Ampatuan Jr. and Zaldy Ampatuan were finally convicted for masterminding this heinous massacre.

Even in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and relief efforts to aid the victims of recent typhoons, the Duterte administration’s “campaign of murder shamelessly continues without letup,” human rights watchdog Karapatan stated, as the group condemned the killings of freelance journalist Ronnie Villamor in Masbate and peasant leader Armando Buisan in Quezon.

Outside the Manila City Hall this morning, members of the Samahan ng Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) conducted a protest action calling for the dropping of charges against individuals and release of political prisoners in relation to multiple murder charges filed against them at Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 32, as National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon takes the witness stand today.