Broadcast journalist Atom Araullo and his legal counsels from the Movement Against Disinformation (MAD) said that their legal victory may be used as a reference for future cases against red-tagging, especially for activists and journalists.
In a 27-page court decision dated Dec. 12, 2024, Judge Dolly Rose Bolante-Prado of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 306 said that the right to free speech was abused by the defendants, Lorraine Marie T. Badoy-Partosa and Jeffrey Celiz, by red-tagging the plaintiff, Araullo.
“We want to use this case as a potential defense mechanism for journalists who experienced the same kind of attacks and harassment,” said Araullo in a press conference, Dec. 19 in Quezon City.
Araullo recounted that after being subjected to the red-tagging spree of Badoy and Celiz, the effect rippled to the communities that he covered.
Araullo’s victory is part of a broader wave of landmark victories against red taggers in the country. Just recently, Baguio City passed a historic Human Rights Defenders Ordinance, the first of its kind in the country. 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.
The ordinance institutionalizes protection mechanisms for human rights defenders, recognizing their vital role in upholding democracy and ensuring accountability. With the growing threats to civil liberties, such legislation is considered a victory by human rights defenders and activists amidst a prevailing climate of repression.
The ordinance 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.
Meanwhile, elderly and sick political detainee Tomas Dominado was allowed hospital admission after strong public clamor. Judge Rommel Leonor of the Regional Trial Court in Mambusao town, Capiz, in an order released on Dec. 12, granted the plea of Tomas Dominado to stay at the hospital while getting treatment for unstable blood pressure and difficulty in breathing.
Dominado, 74, was admitted to the West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC) in Jaro, Iloilo on December 12.