KARAPATAN urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to address squarely the violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) evident from the testimonies gathered from across the country during its inquiry on red-tagging.
Among those who gave testimonies on the first day of the CHR’s inquiry on red-tagging in Luzon on January 14, 2025 were women community leaders from Tondo, one of the urban poor communities in Metro Manila targeted for militarization since late 2022, when soldiers began occupying the area.
The CHR finished its inquiry in the Visayas and Mindanao in 2024.
The local women leaders in Tondo reported being red-tagged by the 11th Civil Military Operations Battalion of the Philippine Army and receiving unwanted late night visits from the soldiers, who would take their pictures without their permission. In one incident, they were told to gather to receive ayuda, but the event turned out to be a fake surrender ceremony.
The women leaders also complained that the soldiers, who are renting a house in Tondo, would often hold overnight drinking sessions and cause trouble in the community.
“As bad as these reports are,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay, who also testified on being red- and terror-tagged, “remote villages in the countryside have it much worse because their communities and production areas are being subjected to aerial bombings and artillery attacks,” said Palabay. “De facto martial law exists as villagers suffer hamletting and food blockades.”
“Red- and terror-tagging and the graver violations of human rights and IHL do not occur in a vacuum, but are part and parcel of counter-insurgency operations in militarized communities,” stressed Palabay. “We call on the CHR to look into the deleterious effects that militarization in urban areas and the countryside has wrought on the people’s rights and welfare.”