Because of the killing of the red-tagged doctor, Dr. Mary Rose Sancelan, and her husband and government employee Edwin Sancelan, in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, last December 15, 2020, journalists took to Twitter to warn the public on the dangers of red-tagging.
For context, Dr. Sancelan, chief of the COVID Inter-Agency Task Force and a City Health Officer, was a victim of red-tagging from a local anti-communist group in the city called Kagubak, short for Kawsa Guihulnganon Batok Kumunista. Although the assailants remained unidentified, journalists relate the crime to red-tagging.
Here are some of their reactions:
Young journalist Jules Guiang called out government officials for using “red-tagging” as their version of “truth-tagging.”
Shame on all elected and appointed government officials who bank on their popularity to make ‘red-tagging’ appear as their version of ‘truth-tagging.’ Blood is in your hands. Shame on all of you. https://t.co/IuWW0VYm4r
— Jules Guiang (@julesguiang) December 16, 2020
Journalists Kevin Manalo and Barnaby Lo both urged people to stop “red-tagging.”
Stop red-tagging, stop killing! https://t.co/9YreS9PvU1
— Kevin Manalo (@kevinmanalo_) December 16, 2020
They killed the only doctor in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental. After she was red-tagged.
Dr. Sancelan feared for her life, and rightly so.
Stop red-tagging. It endangers people’s lives.
Stop the killings. https://t.co/5CHWqNJUrO
— Barnaby Lo 吳宗鴻 (@barnabychuck) December 16, 2020
Journalist Inday Espina Varona called for justice and recounted the piece she wrote in 2019 about Dr. Sancelan and red-tagging.
Justice! I wrote about Dr. Sancelan for @ABSCBNNews in September 2019 in an op-ed piece titled, "‘Red-tagging’ affects even non-targets, Negros bishop warns" https://t.co/WD7zMvdi2g @ANCALERTS @DZMMTeleRadyo https://t.co/mvNIni9hrQ
— inday espina varona (@indayevarona) December 15, 2020
Co-founder of the Association of Young Environmental Journalists, Val Amiel called out the perpetrators for red-tagging the head of the local IATF in the area and the people who allowed it to happen.
https://twitter.com/valvestil/status/1339075816865447938
Columnist JC Punongbayan wrote that the Philippine Government repays the medical frontliners with death.
This is how the PH gov't repays medical frontliners: with death. https://t.co/1WdBaPX3EQ
— JC Punongbayan, PhD (@jcpunongbayan) December 16, 2020
Earlier this 2020, actresses Angel Locsin and Liza Soberano both encountered red-tagging from Lt. General Antonio Parlade Jr.
Red-tagging endangers everyone as it maliciously accuses an individual or a group of being communists or communist sympathizers without evidence. Examples of the possible effects of wrongfully accusing a person through red-tagging are the killings in Guihulngan, City.
To date, there have been 6 killings in the Guihulngan, with Dr. Sancenlan as the latest, all related to a list released by the anti-communist vigilante group red-tagging 15 individuals.
