[News] Philippines blocks over two dozen websites over “terrorist” tag, movements raise alarm

[Anti-Imperialist News]

peoplesdispatch.org
<https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/23/philippines-blocks-over-two-dozen-websites-over-terrorist-tag-movements-raise-alarm/>
Philippines blocks over two dozen websites over “terrorist” tag, movements
raise alarm
June 23, 2022
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[image: image.png]

Office of the National Telecommunication Commission of the Philippines
(NTC). The NTC blocked 28 websites in the Philippines over allegations of
links with the banned Communist Party of the Philippines and its
affiliates.

Over two dozen progressive media websites were banned in the Philippines
after being accused by security officials of having links with “terrorist”
groups. 28 websites were blocked on Wednesday, June 22, by the National
Telecommunications Commission (NTC) based on a letter by outgoing National
Security Adviser and National Security Council (NSC) chief Hermogenes
Esperon Jr.

The letter, which was forwarded to the NTC on June 6 and published on June
22 along with the ban order, listed websites supposedly “affiliated to and
are supporting … terrorists and terrorist organizations.” The “terrorist”
organization in question is the banned Communist Party of the Philippines
(CPP) and its affiliates.

The letter listed websites of CPP leader Jose Maria Sison and that of the
party’s political arm, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines
(NDFP). It also included NDFP’s official mouthpiece *Liberation* and
various pro-Maoist and radical communist websites.

The NDFP, which previously functioned as a legal political advocacy group,
was designated as a terrorist group in June 2021 by the controversial
Anti-Terrorism Council, based on the controversial anti-terror law passed
under the Rodrigo Duterte administration.

NDFP members and leaders, many of whom were former communist militants who
gave up arms and even served as negotiators for the CPP during the aborted
peace process with the Philippines government, have since faced several
rounds of political repression due to the “terrorist” tag.

Alarmingly, the recent list also targets progressive groups over
unsubstantiated allegations of association with the CPP and NDFP. Only
seven of the 28 websites named in Esperon’s list either have an CPP-NDFP
association or an ATC resolution claiming their links to the communist
group.

Prominent alternative news platforms like *Bulatlat* and *Pinoy Weekly*,
the websites of progressive parliamentary coalition Bayan Muna, fisherfolk
union Pamalakaya Pilipinas, Save Our Schools Network (SOS Network), and
Federation of Agricultural Workers (UMA Pilipinas), and international
progressive new media groups like *CounterPunch* and *Monthly Review* are
on the list despite having no known links to the militant communist
movement.

The only basis provided in Esperon’s letter to the NTC was the past three
resolutions deeming the CPP, NDFP, and CPP’s armed wing New People’s Army
(NPA) as “terrorist” organizations. None of these resolutions mention any
of the other groups or websites banned, many of which function legally as
political and social movements in the country.

Social movements and progressive groups have responded with outrage against
the blocking of these websites. The move comes with barely a week left in
the Duterte administration and it is feared that this will lead to further
attacks on independent media and social movements organizing in the
country.

In a statement responding to the government’s actions, *Bulatlat* condemned
the “brazen violation of our right to publish, and of the public’s right to
free press and free expression.” The media platform stated that the ban was
“downright unacceptable” as it was based on “mere hearsay” of the NSC, and
argued that this “sets a dangerous precedent for independent journalism in
the Philippines.”

“Blocking access to these sites leave a gap in discourse and in the flow of
information and highlights the threats posed by the Anti-Terrorism Law on
the freedom of expression and on freedom of the press,” said the National
Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), echoing *Bulatlat’s*
concerns.

The NUJP reacted to the blocking of *Bulatlat* and *Pinoy Weekly *saying
that conflating criticisms of government policies with outright association
with militant groups is “dangerous.”

“We have repeatedly warned against the dangers of red-tagging and how the
practice paints groups and people as legitimate targets for threats,
harassment and physical attacks,” the NUJP said in its statement. “This
labeling, in the form of an official government document, magnifies that
danger even more.”

“A mere conclusory statement that one is affiliated with and supporting
‘terrorists and terrorist organizations’ without competent, credible and
admissible evidence is arbitrary and therefore has no legal leg to stand
on,” said Josa Deinla, spokesperson for the National Union of Peoples’
Lawyers (NUPL), which will be representing *Bulatlat* in their petition
against the order.

Bayan Muna also strongly rejected the order. Bayan Muna’s Renato Reyes
urged telecommunication service providers “to reject these illegal and
baseless orders from the NTC and National Security Council” of banning the
websites.

“Blocking (websites of alternative media platforms) and red-tagging the
listed organizations undermines their work as legitimate groups and sets a
precedent for other organizations critical of the Duterte and Marcos
regimes,” said Neri Colmenares, former legislator and chairperson of Bayan
Muna. “It also sends a chilling effect to news agencies that fearlessly
deliver the news no matter how devastating it can be.”

Carlos Zarate, deputy minority leader in the House of Representatives and
floor leader of Bayan, also came down heavily on the move, calling it
“another throwback to martial rule era and a blatant violation of the
constitutionally-guaranteed rights to freedom of expression and of the
press.”
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