Last week was quite the week for red-tagging — the practice of, as we have been writing about since 2017, labeling activists and dissenters as communist rebels and enemies of the state.
While red-tagging is nothing new, things took a turn for the absurd when Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. "warned" actress Liza Soberano that she might end up dead if she continues her association with Gabriela Youth, the youth arm of the Gabriela Women's Party.
So far, that association has been only in being a guest at a webinar organized by Gabriela Youth to mark the Month of the Girl Child and saying essentially that life is unfair for women and girls.
As you have probably read by now, Parlade said he was sure that if Soberano — and Catriona Gray, for some reason — continue joining Gabriela's activities, they will magically wake up one day taking up arms against the government.
You probably have not read, however, that the general also called out one of our reporters — to be fair, only on his lonely Twitter account — for writing about the issue.
It was, to be honest, a straightforward story about a statement from Liza's lawyer condemning the red-tagging of his client. The lawyer wasn't even referring to Parlade in his statement, but there you go.
I am still undecided on whether the general missing two stories that were more critical of his statements is a good or a bad thing. Probably bad if it's an indicator of how well he has been monitoring the issue.
It is also not the first time that Parlade has jumped at a conspiracy of journalists just doing their jobs.
In 2019, he accused the Defense Press Corps of "allowing their government to be punched and bullied without giving it an opportunity to air its side, or more appropriately, to express the truth."
The DPC promptly responded that they did not report the statement that Parlade wanted them to because it "was to put it bluntly, a rehash of a written statement [the Armed Forces spokesperson] issued three days earlier."
There is some truth to Parlade's claims, although the conspiracy theories that he has might not.
Some activists do decide to join the New People's Army and it's probably safe to say that all members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army started as activists.
But it is more true that many don't. I am not sure that trying to scare people into not being activists will necessarily mean that the NPA will be no more but probably not.
In any case, Bayan Muna's Neri Colmenares — cleared this week in a complaint of kidnapping over a teenager leaving home and joining activist group Anakbayan — said in an interview in 2019 that "you don't lump the opposition with armed combatants just because they espouse similar issues."
"If the NPA believes that there should be land for the landless, it doesn't preclude other groups from also espousing the same principles," Colmenares said.
"In my case, in many activists' cases, they continue their activism through rallies, symposiums and so on," he also said then.
Throughout all these episodes of red-tagging, there has been a recurring challenge from the government — notably from Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, whom I have seen issue it twice — that to prove that one is not a member of the communist party or the NPA, one must simply condemn their attacks and other activities.
Badoy had even offered to resign as soon as the members of the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives did it.
It seemed reasonable enough and I had always wondered why none of those challenged — including National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chair Nonoy Espina — took it on.
It has only been in recent days that I realized that none of these people accused of being communist rebels or sympathizers needs to do anything to disprove it.
That burden lies on the accuser, at least ideally, and requiring them to condemn things that they are actually free to support (though, okay, not in terms of material support, because that would be a crime) is an imposition with no basis in law or even any value as evidence.
I was not sure how to end this, but Angel Locsin, whom Parlade also red-tagged along with her sister, offers this snippet from an interview of the general after Cavite Gov. Jonvic Remulla warned him against putting up anti-communist tarpaulins in the province.
How do you like them apples?