The Task Force Detainees of the Philippines decried what it described as the “red tagging” of the organization by an article that appeared on a Manila newspaper on March 7.
“Communist-controlled TFD?!?! Red tagging is real and it endangers the lives of our staff and fellow [Human Rights Defenders],” said Carmelite priest Christian Buenafe, chairperson of TFDP.
An opinion piece that appeared on the Manila Times tagged TFD as “a communist front” that exaggerates the number of political prisoners in the country during the martial law years.
An article written by veteran journalist Rigoberto Tiglao said data provided by human rights group Amnesty International, which estimated that “about 70,000 people were imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,257 were killed during the Marcos dictatorship” are “a classic instance of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels’ technique of deception”
Tiglao said the information was deliberately concocted by “a virulently anti-Marcos US academic” in 2001 “and spread by the Yellows, and especially the communists.”
“That sentence purportedly issued by [Amnesty International] has been repeated so many times that many believe it’s true,” wrote Tiglao.
The data was cited by senatorial candidate Luke Espiritu during a televised political debate last week.
“There is no such ‘record,’ in Amnesty International nor even in other barely credible reports,” wrote Tiglao.
