COMMENTARY: A Preliminary Sampling of What is Not Red-Tagging (3rd of 8 parts)

MINDAVIEWS

COMMENTARY: A Preliminary Sampling of What is Not Red-Tagging (Third of 8 parts)

Soliman M. Santos, Jr.

[3]  Excerpt from the Resolution dated 21 September 2022 by RTC Manila Branch 19 Judge Marlo A. Magdoza-Malagar in Civil Case No. R-MNL-18-00925-CV (Department of Justice vs. CPP and NPA) which dismissed the DOJ Petition to proscribe or declare the CPP-NPA as terrorist groups under Section 17 of the Republic Act No.  9372 [hereinafter the “Judge Magdoza-Malagar Resolution”].

Having already mentioned the Judge Magdoza-Malagar Resolution as a subject of three Tiglao opinion column pieces on front organizations and personalities of the CPP-NPA-NDFP, we may as well point out (what Tiglao and Dr. Badoy-Partosa missed) that the Resolution, as part of its findings of fact, extensively discusses with detailed information in pp. 37-48 the “Revolutionary Dual Tactics in the Recruitment Process” of the CPP-NPA-NDFP  based mainly on the testimonies of petitioner DOJ’s witnesses Noel Minoto Legaspi, Joy James Alcoser Saguino, and Jeffrey Luces Celiz.  They are all former CPP-NPA cadres who once operated at increasingly high levels in the movement aboveground and underground in the Visayas and Mindanao, and as such are considered “insider witness.”  To quote the Resolution: (boldface and italics in the original)

Legaspi elaborates on the inseparable link among the CPP-NPA-NDF by connecting it to the inseparable link between the armed struggle espoused by the underground movements (UGMOs) and the unarmed urban revolutionary mass movements espoused by the unarmed movements, the National Democratic Mass Organizations (NDMOs) or the “open” or “above-ground organizations”… Unarmed parliamentary or legal struggle^[1] has a symbioltic relationship with the NPA’s armed struggle.  Legal fronts or NDMOs have the component tasked to organize UGMOs such that these legal forms usually have an urban core force that supports the armed struggle. The “symbiotic relationship” or “mutualism” between the armed struggle and the unarmed urban revolutionary mass movements complement each other as they share the same end of seizing control of the government and establishing the People’s Democratic Republic of the Philippines.

As a basic principle, armed struggle is the primary and decisive form of struggle to overthrow the government.  In essence, it is illegal.  This is not to say however, that the field of unarmed struggle can be classified as primarily “legal;” arguably, it can still be classified as illegal because it implements the revolutionary dual tactics, defined as the combination of both “legal” and “illegal” tactics of the CPP.  Moreover, within legal organizations or NDMOs or front organizations are secret organizations or UGMOs that support the first form of struggle of the CPP, i.e., the armed struggle…. 

            x x x

Witness Joy Sanguino corroborated Legaspi’s testimony and further identified the NDMOs targeting specific groups or sectors and their corresponding UGMOs as follows:

Sector	UGMO	NDMO
Youth andStudent	Kabataang Makabayan (KM)	–  Anakbayan-  League of Filipino Students (LFS)–  National Union of Students of the    Philippines (NUSP)–  College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP)–  Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP)
Women	Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (MAKIBAKA)	–  Gabriela Youth-  Gabriela Women’s Party
Farmers, Fisherfolks and Peasants	Pambansang Katipunan ng Magbubukid (PKM)	– Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)– Unyon ng Magsasaka sa Agrikultura (UMA)– Pambansang Lakas ng mga Mamamalakaya (PAMALAKAYA)
Workers	Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions (RCTU)	–  Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)
Urban Poor	Katipunan ng mga Samahang Manggagawa (KASAMA)	– Katipunan na Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY)
Transport	Pambansang Samahan ng mga Makabayang Tsuper (PSMT)	–  Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (PISTON)
Teachers	Katipunan ng mga Gurong Makabayan (KAGUMA)	–  Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)– Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (CONTEND)
Government	Makabayang Kawaning Pilipino (MKP)	Confederation for Unity and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE)
Health	Makabayang Samahang Pangkalusugan (MASAPA)	– Alliance of Health Workers  (AHW)– Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD)
Lawyers	Lupon ng Manananggol para sa Bayan (LUMABAN)	– National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL)
Scientists	Liga ng Agham para sa Bayan (LAB)	AGHAM
Church	Christians for National Liberation (CNL)	– Promotion of Church Peoples’ Response (PCPR)
Artists	Artista at Manunulat ng Sambayanan (ARMAS)	– National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP)– Concerned Artists of the Philippines-  Musika Alay sa Bayan

[Author’s note:  AGHAM refers to Alyansa ng Agham para sa Mamamayan, while Concerned Artists of the Philippines goes by the acronym CAP.  The above listing of NDMOs does not appear to be exhaustive or complete, in terms of sectors and organizations, and any such listing is bound to be contested. Manila Times columnist Rigoberto D. Tiglao for example writes of “the party’s over a hundred front organizations.”^[2]] 

In the recruitment process, the members of the NDMOs are recruited to join the UGMOs. Members of the UGMOs are recruited to become cadres and members of the CPP-NPA….

x x x

… there is no direct recruitment into the CPP from the “open organizations” or NDMOs. Each possible recruit is first recruited into the NDMOs before being considered for membership in the UGMOs and ultimately in the CPP-NPA. Arguably, it can be said that underneath the seemingly legal status of NDMOs is a hidden process of recruitment into the armed struggle to overthrow the government. 

The indispensability of the UGMOs and NDMOs to the recruitment process of the CPP-NPA and to the armed struggle to overthrow the GRP [Government of the Reoublic of the Philippines] is pursuant to the strategic political line of the CPP-NPA-NDF which has remained unchanged for more than five (5) decades…

Now, the Judge Magdoza-Malagar Resolution, particularly its above-quoted passage and especially table, can hardly be deemed as red-tagging.  The Resolution was done in the legitimate exercise of constitutional, more precisely judicial, power and duty.^[3]   As a judicial decision, the final unappealed Resolution is already “a part of the legal system of the Philippines.”^[4]  Futhermore, the Resolution has been reaffirmed by the CPP in this way:  “…we welcome the September 21, 2022 decision of the Manila RTC dismissing the said petition of the DOJ in which it failed to establish any basis for declaring the CPP and NPA as terrorists…. On initial reading, we found the 135-page decision penned by Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar reasonable and fair.”^[5]   Ironically though, the aforesaid three “insider witnesses” whom Judge Magdoza-Malagar relied on as credible enough for the subject of “Revolutionary Dual Tactics in the Recruitment Process” of the CPP-NPA-NDFP are among the “top Red-taggers” as identified by the CPP.^[6]  

What if an ordinary citizen said or wrote what Judge Magdoza-Malagar said in writing in the above-quoted passage and table from her Resolution?  Would it be treated as protected speech or would it be a different matter of being treated as red-tagging?  In Deduro at p. 35, the SC said “We consider a tarpaulin connecting a judge to the CPP as a threat.  With equal fervor, we hold that a similar tarpaulin harping on alleged ties between civilians and the CPP is also a threat.”  Perhaps, it like manner of equal protection of the law,^[7] the above-said ordinary citizen’s statements similar to the quoted Judge Magdoza-Malagar Resolution passage and table should not be treated as red-tagging in the likewise absence of the use of threats, of the malicious purpose of impeding constitutional rights and liberties, and of being unfounded.      

SOLIMAN M. SANTOS, JR. is a retired Judge of the RTC of Naga City, Camarines Sur, serving in the judiciary there from 2010 to 2022.  He has an A.B. in History cum laude from U.P. in 1975, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Nueva Caceres (UNC) in Naga City in 1982, and a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne in 2000.  He is a long-time human rights and international humanitarian lawyer; legislative consultant and legal scholar; peace advocate, researcher and writer; and author of a number of books, including on the Moro and Communist fronts of war and peace. Among his authored books are The Moro Islamic Challenge: Constitutional Rethinking for the Mindanao Peace Process (UP Press, 2001);  How do you solv a problem like the GRP-NDFP peace process? Part 2 (Sulong Peace, 2022); and his latest, Tigaon 1969: Untold Stories of the CPP-NPA, KM and SDK (Ateneo Press, 2023). He also has a trilogy of books on his court work and practice:  Justice of the Peace (2015), Drug Cases (2022), and Judicial Activist(2023), all published by Central Books, Inc., Quezon City.e 

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^[1]  An early martial law first mainly Leninist theorizing on legal struggle as part of the national-democratic revolution was the paper “Hinggil sa Legal na Pakikibaka” (4 Enero 1974) by the Samahang Demokratiko ng Kabataan (SDK).   SDK was a NDMO pre-martial law that became a UGMO during martial law.  See Patricio N. Abinales, “Fragments in History, Silhouettes of Resurgence: Student Radicalism in the Early Years of the Marcos Dictatorship,” Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 2, September 2008, at pp. 181-188. 

^[2]   Rigoberto D. Tiglao, Manila Times opinion column pieces:  “The Communist Party and Sison’s greatest trick” (November 9, 2020); and “Stop exposing communist fronts? That’s nuts” (July 13, 2022).

^[3]  1987 Const., Art. VIII, Sec. 1.

^[4]  Civil Code of the Philippines, Article 8.

^[5]  Marco Valbuena, Chief Information Officer, Communist Party of the Philippines, “On the Manila RTC dismissal of terrorist proscription against the CPP and NPA,” September 22, 2022, accessible thru the CPP-NPA-NDFP website https://ift.tt/OkEzCoG.

^[6]  “Who are the top Red-taggers?,” Ang Bayan, May 21, 2024, accessible thru the CPP-NPA-NDFP website www.philippinerevolution.nu, naming others: “Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Colonel Harold Cabunoc, Mocha Uson, Lorraine Badoy, … , Salvador Panelo and many others.  Recently, Bato de la Rosa led wholesale Red tagging in the senate along with traitors like… Kate Raca and others who now serve the AFP.  The SMNI Network, owned by Duterte’s henchman and now fugitive Apollo Quiboloy…”

^[7]   1987 Const., Art. III, Sec. 1, stating the due process and equal protection clauses of the Bill of Rights.