THIS was how that nonsense begun. One day Ang Probinsyano’s Coco Martin was doing location shooting and for the first time in his life he saw bunches of red bananas for sale along the road.
He exclaimed, “Uy red tagging!”
It’s public knowledge in real life he speaks with a lisp, and by a weird twist of fate the banana vendor is a closet supporter of the CPP/NPA/NDF. And that’s the alamat of “red tagging.”
Joma Sison, the self-exiled founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), is the one who “proudly red-tagged” front organizations of the CPP – New People’s Army – National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), according to National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) director-general Ricardo de Leon, referring to a video of Sison naming the groups affiliated with the CPP-NPA-NDF.
During an international conference in Belgium in 1987, Sison, who is in self-exile in the Netherlands since the 1980s, identified the Kilusang Mayo Uno, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Gabriela, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, League of Filipino Students, and KADENA as part of the CPP-NPA’s forces in advancing the Philippine revolution.
And speaking of assholes…
The people who conjured “red tagging” out of thin air are also the ones “red tagging” themselves. The funny thing is being a “communist” in the Philippines is not illegal, yet these people who are terrified of being identified as one are also the ones bringing attention to themselves that they’re communists.
Go to Plaza Miranda or Plaza Libertad and shout to high heavens that you’re a communist; nobody will arrest you. They’ll probably think you’re some kind of looney.
Red tagging is a catch-all defensive mechanism every time government security forces identifies a person or group as a militant subversive bent on overthrowing the government through armed conflict. In other words, it’s their version of the “victim card”.
The government is not “red tagging” anyone but identifying them as those out to overthrow the legitimate government through armed and violent means.
The CPP-NPA-NDF operates through front organizations such as party-list groups, press and lawyers associations, student and workers organizations, and “coalitions” of personalities troublesome and noisy enough to destabilize the government.
And this is what they refer to as white area operations for urban area infiltration operations. Of course, the red area operations is for the armed struggle. It is no secret that the CPP/NPA/NDF has declared that they use the red/white area designations to identify their areas of operations.
Take note that the CPP/NPA/NDF has no qualms in achieving their ultimate goal which is to overthrow the legitimate government through a violent and armed rebellion and take over to establish their own brand i.e. totalitarian dictatorship in the disguise of a “democracy”.
Despite the fact that most of the fighting between the CPP/NPA and the Armed Forces are in the hinterlands, the people in the urban areas should be particularly concerned because the NDF, their front organizations and party list groups, are in the cities. Which means that their mass bases in the cities serve as their logistical support network where they procure food, medicines and equipment.
It is also in the cities where their safe houses are located, providing them haven for their wounded fighters, members on the run and recruits.
For as long as there are mass bases in the urban areas/cities, the insurgency continues.
It is rather pathetic that their sympathizers and “usefull idiots” who find it trendy and fashionable supporting these insurgents just because they hate then President Rodrigo Duterte – and now President Bongbong Marcos – are most probably not even aware that the democratic space they enjoy now and their lifestyle will most likely drastically change if not end when the CPP/NPA/NDF do win and take control of this country.
Ahay, no more venti Frappuccino or grande salted caramel Macchiato for these woke social climbers when Joma Sison and company take over as they’ll be sent to re-indoctrination camps to cleanse them of their self-induced bourgeois attitude and mentality.
Finally, with All Souls’ Day coming up on Wednesday, let us reflect on the thousands of victims of this more than 50 years of armed conflict who died of violent and sometimes senseless deaths./PN
