MANILA, Philippines — The video often cited as supposed proof by government and military officials that several progressive organizations are fronts of the communist rebellion was “spliced,” Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison said.
The government has repeatedly claimed that its conflating activists with communist rebels and enemies of the state — a practice that human rights groups and the UN Human Rights Office have cautioned against — is not red-tagging because it was Sison himself who made that link. Regardless of the supposed provenance of their alleged proof, the accusations are from the government officials themselves.
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"They spliced the video to make it appear that I said the legal, democratic organizations are fronts in the sense that they are façade. I never used that kind of language," Sison told ANC’s “Matters of Fact.”
"It’s stupid of the military to splice this."
Sison said that in the video, which was apparently part of a speech he delivered in Brussels, Belgium in 1988, he was actually differentiating between the legal forces of the broad national democratic movement and the armed revolutionary movement.
"I always make a differentiation between the legal democratic organizations and the revolutionary forces in the underground and those involved in the people’s war in the countryside," he said.
In the video, a clip of which was uploaded 11 years ago on YouTube, Sison said, “It is true that a minority class, especially the only party which represents it cannot win the Philippine revolution all by itself.”
The video then cut to him enumerating “legal democratic forces in the Philippines,” namely Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Gabriela, League of Filipino Students, Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Kadena.
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'These organizations are, in fact, legal and democratic'
Phillip Jamilla, public information desk of leftist rights group Karapatan, said Sison was not red-tagging these groups when he mentioned that they are legal democratic forces in the country.
“He's simply stating the fact that these organizations are, in fact, legal and democratic. Why can't the military understand something so simple?” Jamilla said in a tweet.
Sison’s video has been frequently brought up as supposed proof that these organizations are fronts for the communist rebellion as far back as two years ago, when members of ACT Teachers party-list when they were allegedly subjected to profiling by the police.
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The video has also been used to justify officials’ red-tagging of progressive and leftist organizations, which, according to rights groups, exposes those accused of harassment, and even threats to life. — Xave Gregorio