PCO denies red-tagging policy
THE PHILIPPINES’ state media is not engaging in the practice of publicly accusing individuals of being communists, a Presidential Communications Office (PCO) official said on Monday.
“There’s no policy in… this Marcos administration government on red-tagging,” PCO Acting Secretary Cesar B. Chavez said during a congressional budget briefing.
Red-tagging is the act of accusing an individual or organization of sympathizing with communism, prominently used against opposition figures in the Philippines.
It is a strategy used by the government against those perceived as “enemies of the state,” according to a dissenting opinion of Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Marvic Mario Victor F. Leonen in a 2015 case.
Mr. Chavez said that PCO will designate “fact-check officers” in all its attached media bureaus to combat the spread of disinformation within its platforms, including the act of red-tagging.
“In the next few days, I’ll be issuing a particular address to all state media, that means PTV-4, Philippine Information Agency, Radyo Pilipinas, Bureau of Broadcast Services, Philippine News Agency, IBC-13, and the PCO proper, that all of them will be designated with a fact-check officer,” he told congressmen.
Embedding fact-checkers within its rank would prevent state media from being a “purveyor of fake news,” he added. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio