Marking the city’s commitment to be a safe haven for human rights, the Baguio City Council on Monday has approved the city’s Human Rights Defenders Ordinance.
Passed with 11 votes and 3 abstentions, the ordinance is intended to protect activists and other human rights advocates in the city from various forms of threats, defamation and harassment.
This includes provisions penalizing public officials and other state-affiliated parties and agents that engage in “red-tagging” against activists and other individuals in the city.
Red-tagging, a practice where victims are accused of ties to the communist insurgency, is commonly used against activists, at times by state agents. The ordinance’s definition of the practice covers acts, such as tagging groups during school-led activities, spreading defamatory content on social media and government-sanctioned vilification campaigns.
Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who is set to sign the ordinance into law, has himself been subject to red-tagging by a former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict official after the mayor ordered the removal of posters labeling student activists as terrorists.
Under the ordinance, any public authority found guilty of red-tagging must immediately rectify or expunge their statements. Failure to comply may result in administrative and criminal charges, and fines.
The measure also codifies and institutionalizes 19 rights for activists, including protection against vilification and the right to advocate for human rights, and guarantees legal protection for state employees who refuse orders to participate in acts that violate human rights.
The ordinance has been in the works for more than a year, facing opposition from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) who argued that existing human rights policies were sufficient and that the ordinance would be abused by “enemies of the state.”
