As an NGO working with Filipino workers and poor communities to claim their labor and human rights, the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) welcomes the release of the Commission on Human Rights’ (CHR) report on the “National Inquiry on Red-tagging,” which the government agency held in 2025. While we note some of the report’s weaknesses, we are calling on the Ferdinand Marcos Jr government to immediately act on and implement the report’s recommendations.

Based on its executive summary and conclusion published in the CHR website, this report should be disseminated widely and discussed by all government agencies and sectors of society that are committed to human rights and democracy. No less than President Marcos Jr should visibly take the lead in ordering the implementation of the report’s recommendations. This report and the direction that it takes would not be possible without the vigorous participation of labor and social movement organizations, of NGOs working on labor and other issues, and of victims from the labor and other sectoral and multisectoral movements in the country.

https://chr.gov.ph/chr-resource/national-inquiry-on-red-tagging-national-inquiry-on-the-current-situation-of-human-rights-defenders-in-the-philippines-with-a-focus-on-incidents-of-red-tagging

The report discusses various forms of red-tagging – from “speeches of the President himself,” meaning former President Rodrigo Duterte, to “posts in official social media accounts of different division of the security sector.” At the same time, the report failed to provide a detailed picture of the entire policy and institutional infrastructure for red-tagging. It touches lightly on the central role played by Duterte, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and the agency’s officials – as well as the “whole-of-nation” approach adopted by the Duterte government in countering the insurgency and carrying out red-tagging.

We support most of the recommendations stated in the report, especially the recommendations that the executive “adopt a comprehensive policy prohibiting the practice of red-tagging,” and that the legislative branch “penalize the practice of red-tagging” and “review the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.”

We particularly highlight the recommendation to the judiciary to “ensure speedy disposition of cases involving human rights defenders.” This should be reflected immediately in the handling of the cases of 20 political prisoners from the labor sector and all political prisoners in the country, the 106 reported cases of extrajudicial killings in the labor sector since 2016, and the two (2) cases of enforced disappearance under Marcos Jr regime.

We, however, raise concerns over the following:

(1) The report should have recognized that the main responsibility for ending red-tagging lies with the government, particularly the executive branch. While strengthening various forms of remedies for red-tagging are welcome, this action should be secondary to stopping red-tagging at its source.

(2) The report “recognizes” Executive Order No. 97, Series of 2025 (Adopting the Omnibus Guidelines on the Exercise of Freedom of Association and Civil Liberties) as part of President Marcos Jr’s efforts “to address red-tagging.” We note, as a labor NGO, that the issuance of this EO in September 2025 has not prevented confirmed and suspected state agents from red-tagging unionists and labor activists. We have released statements on these documented cases:
https://ctuhr.org/releases/despite-marcos-jr-rights-order-harassment-vs-labor-activists-continue/
https://ctuhr.org/releases/cordillera-labor-leaders-arrest-an-attack-on-workers-freedom-of-association/
https://ctuhr.org/releases/red-tagging-of-bicol-labor-leaders-others-should-be-stopped-probed/

(3) While the recommendation to “Ensure a human rights-based approach to countering terrorism, violent extremism, and insurgency” is a step in the right direction in contrast with the government and the military’s flagrant violations of international humanitarian law, the report falls short of questioning the militarist approach to the armed insurgency, which the government equates with terrorism. This militarist approach, we maintain, has deep-seated tensions with human rights, not only at the theoretical level, but at the actual history of rights violations in the labor movement and the country.

(4) Relatedly, the report fails to call for the junking of “Executive Order (EO) No. 70, Series of 2017, which remains the government’s overarching program in countering insurgency” and for the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC. The report should have examined calls to resume peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), which represents the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA) in peace talks with the government. The peace talks not only upholds international humanitarian law and creates mechanisms for its observance, it also seeks to address the root causes of the armed conflict, which will mean advancing labor and human rights.

We also comment on the timing of the report. The CHR stands at the forefront of the government’s efforts to uphold human rights, but released a report on red-tagging, one of the Duterte fascist presidency’s most prominent legacies of human rights violations, only in 2026 – four long years after the Duterte presidency and four long years into the Marcos Jr presidency, which claims to uphold human rights and democracy. The report’s release this year shows the continuing effects of the Duterte legacy of outright fascist rule and rights violations. It shows that the Marcos Jr government has wasted much precious time in stopping this form of rights violation. It shows that not much precious time should be wasted further by this government to end the scourge that is red-tagging.