Bayan Muna urges Comelec to act on black propaganda vs group

Posters mocking the Bayan Muna party-list circulated in Cotabato City.  The group’s logo was used except it reads “Bayad Muna” (payment first). Photo from Neri Colmenares.

MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna party-list on Monday urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to act on what they deem as “massive and nationwide” red-tagging and black propaganda against them.

Bayan Muna first nominee Neri Colmenares wrote to Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia to inform him of the progressive group’s complaints.

Colmenares was also joined by a number of protestors in front of Palacio del Gobernador, which houses the Comelec’s head office. They carried placards against red-tagging and the anticommunist task force.

“Since the start of the campaign period for the national candidates and party-list, Bayan Muna has been the subject of a massive and nationwide black propaganda and vilification campaign,” Colmenares said in his five-page letter.

Colmenares also decried the removal, vandalism, and the black propaganda hurled against the group’s campaign materials.

One of the posters taken in Cubao, Quezon City last March 7 accused the group of being the protector of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA).

Another photo taken in Taytay town in Rizal on March 5 showed Bayan Muna’s poster getting spray painted with “NPA”.

Posters mocking Bayan Muna also circulated in Cotabato City. The group’s logo was used except it reads “Bayad Muna” (payment first).

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Colmenares said the Comelec should take since it already has jurisdiction since Feb. 11, or the beginning of the campaign period for national candidates, including party-list groups.

In Comelec Resolution No. 11116, promulgated last February 19, the poll body said no discrimination shall be acted against cause-oriented groups and organizations, such as people that are part of the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual) community, Indigenous Peoples, persons living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), persons with disability, and women.

Under the same guidelines, Comelec also prohibits labeling candidates as members of criminal or terrorist groups like the NPA without established evidence.

“We laud Comelec’s effort to put a stop to this widespread black propaganda and unfair campaigning through Comelec Resolution 11116,” Colmenares said.

Colmenares then urged the Comelec to enforce its resolution by taking down such materials and launch a probe against such actions during the campaign period.

“Although red-tagging has been declared by no less than the Supreme Court as a threat to life, security, and liberty… vilification and red-tagging against Bayan Muna continue under the new administration and perpetrators remain scot-free,” he said.