While this has been talked about in hushed tones since January last year, the “hit list” of a group called KaGubaK or the Kawsang Guihulnganon batok Komunismo (Guihulnganon’s Cause against Communism) finally made it to the national headlines last week, with the revelation of Sen. Rissa Hontiveros during a Senate hearing on the Negros Oriental killings.
It was revealed that there is this list of 15 supposed CPP-NPA sympathizers or supporters.
What is appalling is that of the 15 names on this list, five have been killed, the latest being Atty. Anthony Trinidad.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa said these killings in Guihulngan are indicative of the failure of government to protect its people.
Senator Hontiveros likewise said the list itself is outrageous. No one, she said, should be killed just because his/her name is in a list.
We join our national officials in the call to investigate the killings. Who benefits from this list? Are there other CPP-NPA supporters whose names are not in the list?
The red tagging syndrome is apparently a sign of the times. In other parts of the country, people are also red-tagged, and many of them do indeed end up dead.
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That must be scary for two Mindanao-based journalists — Leonardo Vicente Corrales and Froilan Gallardo who were red-tagged in Cagayan de Oro along with a religious leader and a human rights lawyer. They were labeled as communists in a flyer, which supposedly came from a certain “Black Mamba” of the “MAT-NMR Press Club Chapter.”
The suspected vigilante group claims that Corrales has a P1 million bounty on his head. It also named Iglesia Filipina Independiente priest Fr. Rolando Abejo and human rights lawyer Beverly Musni, among other personalities, as having links to communist rebels.
Corrales, a former director of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, is associate editor of Mindanao Gold Star Daily; Gallardo works for MindaNews.
“The Philippine Press Institute finds the red-tagging of journalists and media organizations baseless and irresponsible. This does not only endanger the profession and render a chilling effect but also puts the lives of those red-tagged and their families at risk,” the PPI said in a statement.
“We urge the government to hold accountable the perpetrators of such false, malicious, and dangerous propaganda,” the PPI added.
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