Cristina Palabay of Karapatan stressed that it is high time that Congress enacts the said measure as many “human rights defenders were killed, arrested, detained, red-tagged and threatened for so long, and a law to criminalize these acts has been long overdue.”
House of Representatives plenary 2
The lawmakers Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, Quezon City Rep. Jose Christopher Belmonte, La Union Rep. Pablo Ortega as well as Makabayan bloc congressmen Bayan Muna Reps. Carlos Zarate, Eufemia Cullamat, Ferdinand Gaite, Gabriela Women’s Party Arlene Brosas, and ACT Teachers’ Partylist Rep. France Castro said red-tagging “has become a very dangerous action or conduct by public officials and their agents.”
“Red-tagging should be criminalized for two simple reasons: it is committed through the use of public funds, and it has an injurious and irreversible impact on the victims,” they said in filing House Bill No. 9437 on Monday, May 24.