Red blend

Instead of working towards measures that would advance the country, a group of insurrectionists in the House of Representatives seeks to reverse the country’s security gains.

The Makabayan bloc, which has been active in creating a wedge between ruling political clans and thus benefiting from its ultimate goal of fomenting public unrest, now seeks to have the safeguards for public order removed.

Among the initial measures it filed in the 20th Congress is House Bill 1272 repealing the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020, as well as the law criminalizing red-tagging.

The bloc’s lame excuse is that the ATA and the red-tagging law are being weaponized against activists, journalists and dissenters.

The law against terrorism was strengthened during the previous administration to frustrate the efforts to emasculate it with the help of the left-wing alliance in Congress.

For instance, the original law imposes severe penalties, including a considerable fine, for false arrest, which was removed in its amendment.

Described as the “weakest in the world,” senators then initiated amendments to strengthen the law, including the extension to 30 days of the 72 hours to detain suspected terrorists pending court proceedings.

Then Senate President Vicente Sotto III even branded Republic Act 9372, or what was then known as the Human Security Act, as “pro terrorists,” citing provisions that were favorable to the enemies of the state.

In its reinforced form, the Makabayan bloc wants to brand the Anti-Terrorism Law as undermining democracy.

The group acts in the interest of the terror group New People’s Army, an armed organization that is headed for extinction due to the lack of support from the people in the rural areas where it operates.

Executive Director Undersecretary Ernesto C. Torres Jr. of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) said legitimate dissent was never compromised by the law, as claimed by the front organizations.

“This law is not about silencing dissent. It’s about preventing bombings, assassinations and the systematic recruitment of children and youth into armed violence,” Torres said.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Red Tagging bill introduced by the insurgent organizations will cloak groups supporting or inciting terrorism with the guise of legality.

The term “red tag” was coined by left-wing groups, referring to their being identified as fronts of radical organizations that espouse armed revolution.

A review of the Makabayan bill indicates that it seeks to criminalize legitimate national security disclosures, muzzle the voices of former rebels and victims of insurgency and embolden the underground networks of the remnants of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-National Democratic Front triumvirate to sow public discontent.

The NTF-ELCAC had reported that, with 89 active guerrilla fronts dismantled since 2018, and the sole but weakened front in the Bicol region expected to be dismantled by the end of the year, the insurgency movement is approaching its end.

Torres said the Makabayan bloc, through the Anti-Red Tagging bill, seeks to turn “truth-tellers into criminals, while shielding the enablers of insurgency under the cloak of victimhood.”

The twin bills that will serve the interests of the NPA terror organization are being pushed as a priority of the leftist party-lists, exposing them as extensions of the armed rebellion that had lost the cause for its existence.