'Makabayan bloc demonizing military'

From the Manila Times (Mar 22, 2022): 'Makabayan bloc demonizing military' (By Francis Earl Cueto)

A REBEL returnee under the custody of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) on Monday accused party-list groups belonging to the Makabayan bloc of demonizing the military to protect the legal fronts of the communist movement.

The former rebel, identified as Monzon, who claims to have worked as a political instructor of the Regional Operations Command of the Communist Party of the Philippines, New People's Army and National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), said the party-list groups Kabataan, Anakbayan, Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Karapatan and Act Teachers were legal fronts of the communist movement and have been crying "red-tagging" as a tactic to shield the groups.

Monzon recently surrendered to authorities together with two others.

"'Red tagging' is a word used by the communist group to cover and protect its legal fronts which the Commission on Elections has unwittingly accredited via the party-list system. We can see them in Congress," he said.

In Philippine jurisprudence, "red-tagging" was defined through the dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Mario Victor Leonen in the 2015 court case Zarate vs Aquino 3rd as "the act of labelling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists [used] as a strategy...by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be 'threats' or 'enemies of the State.'"

Monzon said he was recruited in 2009 when he was a civil engineering student at the University of Mindanao in Davao City and had spent 13 years being part of the core group of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

Monzon said his father was killed that year and his recruiter from Karapatan brainwashed him into believing that soldiers were the ones responsible for his father's death.

He warned students and the youth not to be swayed by the deceitful propaganda of the communist movement's so-called legal fronts.

Monzon said he became a volunteer for the Karapatan's allied organization called Hustisya (Justice) and called for justice for his father's death. Later on, Monzon said, he was deployed to teach those in the countryside and became the secretary general of the Pasakaday Salugpongan Kalimodan, the CPP-NPA-NDF's front organization that exploits Indigenous peoples (IPs) by offering them free education.

"It is based on a defense mechanism, to demonize the military in a public campaign using the IPs and to pressure government troops into abandoning hinterland areas under their influence," he said.

The hardships of living in the mountains prompted him to escape along with two other IP rebels and surrendered to authorities led by Davao Oriental Gov. Nelson Dayanghirang.

"Hindi naman pala totoo ang sinasabi nila sa 'kin na berdugo ang mga militar, in fact approachable sila. Nagpapasalamat ako sa binigay ng mga sundalo sa akin na second chance," Monzon said.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/03/22/news/national/makabayan-bloc-demonizing-military/1837172