President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday night claimed communist rebels had infiltrated Congress through five party-list groups acting as their “legal fronts,” a charge that was immediately denounced as false by the groups he identified.Progressive groups hold a protest rally in front of the Office of the Ombudsman after filing an administrative complaint against PCOO Usec. Lorraine Badoy over her red-tagging of Vice President Leni Robredo and supporters of her presidential campaign.
“You can see in their behavior and the way they espouse their advocacy—really leftists,” he said, saying the Communist Party of the Philippines has been able to get support from these groups.“You can see the way they talk, behave. Until the end of my day, I would continue to criticize and say something about these party-lists.”Apart from these activist groups, Duterte also slammed the rich who have been using the party-list system as a backdoor to further establish themselves in Congress.
In an online briefing, acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar defended the President’s statements, saying they were based on unspecified intelligence reports. Assistant Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro said the President’s “red tagging spree” is an ” attempt at pointing blame at progressive lawmakers with baseless red-tagging accusations instead of solving urgent problems of the people.”
“Its red-tagging threats and harassment will not help alleviate the suffering of the people due to rising prices of basic goods,” Castro said. Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said President Duterte’s recent red-tagging statements “constitute his desperate last-ditch attempts to silence progressive groups in the run-up to 2022 polls.”
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