Comelec to assess issues on red-tagging, discrimination complaints
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Elections will have to verify red-tagging and discrimination complaints filed before the poll body, Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia said on Wednesday.
Garcia said the Comelec will not have difficulty identifying and verifying red-tagging or tagging in the complaints as the Supreme Court defined what it means.
READ: Supreme Court: Red-tagging threatens one’s right to life, security
“The question is papaano yung responsibility? Sino yung hahabulin namin? Di po ba kapag crime, kapag ito ay criminal o crime, di po dapat ay isang kriminal na hahabulin dahil personal ang crime,” Garcia told reporters in an interview.
(The question is responsibility. Who are we going to run after? Because if there is a crime, if this is a crime, we have to run after a criminal because a crime is personal.)
“So yung isang buong organisasyon, parang ang hirap ipakulong yung organisasyon na yan so yun po yung gusto nating alamin, kung paano yung responsibility and liability based po sa ating existing resolution,” Garcia added.
(It may be difficult to jail the whole organization, so that’s what we need to identify, the reponsibility and liability will be based on our existing resolution.)
Garcia also said that the poll body already received complaints, which are being compiled by the Committee on Safe.
He noted that the committee is tasked to implement the Comelec Resolution No. 11116 or the Anti-discriminatory and Fair Campaigning Guidelines for the 2025 elections.
READ: Comelec to probe Makabayan’s red-tagging complaint
Gabriela Party-list on Wednesday lodged a red-tagging and gender-based sexual harassment complaint against the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict before the poll body.
Garcia said that the complaint filed by the party-list has been endorsed to the Committee on Safe.
The Makabayan coalition on Tuesday also urged the poll body to act on posters containing black propaganda against its party-list groups.
A Comelec resolution, promulgated last February 19, stated that no discrimination should be acted against cause-oriented groups and organizations, such as people that are part of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual) community, Indigenous peoples, persons living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), persons with disability, and women).
Under the same guidelines, the Comelec also prohibits labeling candidates as a member of criminal or terrorist groups without established evidence.
