The court has issued a temporary restraining order while hearing the petition for the issuance of Writ of Amparo, ordering the Police Regional Office-Cordillera to take down its publication on social media and other platforms branding certain groups as fronts of the Communist Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army.
Regional Trial Court Branch 3 Presiding Judge Emmanuel Rasing issued the Writ of Amparo on March 25, ordering PRO-Cor Director, B/Gen. R’win Pagkalinawan, to submit an answer to the court within five working days.
In the meantime, the court said PRO-Cor, including all units, groups, stations, officers, and offices under its command shall henceforth make no social media or tarpaulin postings, or public postings by any other means, branding/tagging the petitioners and the organizations they belong to as communist-terrorists, CPP/NPA front organizations, recruiters, and other similar content.
The petitioners are from progressive groups represented by Christian Dave Ruz of Kabataan party-list-Baguio; Deanna Louisse Montenegro of the National Union of Students of the Philippines-Cordillera; Leandro Enrico Ponce, chair of the University of the Philippines Baguio Student Council; and Keidy Transfiguracion of the Cordilleran Youth Center.
The red-tagged youth activists filed the petition on March 24, seeking to prevent PRO-Cor from posting any materials linking them to the underground movement.
The next hearing for the petition is set on March 29.
“We have spent the past months dealing with terrorist-tagging on an organizational to a personal basis. We have filed countless reports and complaints over these. It is not easy for the youth to brave the effects of both the pandemic and these threats; but today is a small victory we wish to proclaim,” NUSP-Cordillera spokesperson Montenegro said.
Montenegro had been the target of several online posts targeting her both personally and the organization, claiming they have been recruiting individuals in the city to join the CPP/NPA.
On the ground, tarpaulins were scattered across public places like the city’s Post Office loop, overpasses, and even a waiting shed in Itogon, Benguet.
The College Editors Guild of the Philippines-Cordillera has also cited the rampant red-tagging activities of PRO-Cor in the past months, prompting concerned citizens and groups to file complaints before the Commission on Human Rights-CAR and the Baguio City Council.
If the petition for the writ of amparo is granted, the privileges will also be granted, one of them possibly a protective order. – Ofelia C. Empian
April 27, 2024
