A former rebel has revealed that “red tagging” is a term concocted by the communist insurgents and being used as cover for their so-called “legal fronts,” notably party list groups such as Kabataan, Anak Bayan, Bayan Muna, GABRIELA, Karapatan and Act-Teacher.
During Sunday’s virtual press briefing of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Jong Monzon, who recently surrendered to government forces along with two comrades, said “red tagging is a term used by the communist groups to cover and protect legal fronts which the Commission on Elections has “unwittingly accredited” as party-list groups.
“We can see them (party list representatives) in Congress,” Monzon said.
Monzon served as a former political instructor of the communist insurgents’ Regional Operations Command, Southern Mindanao Regional Committee.
Recruited in 2009 when he was still a student of civil engineering at Davao City’s University of Mindanao, Monzon said he spent 13 years of his young life being part of the core group of the rebel movement in the region.
He recalled he was recruited after his father was killed, and he was made to believe the military was responsible for his father’s death.
He asserted that the left-leaning party list groups were part of the rebel movement, and he called on the young voters not to be deceived and vote for such candidates.
Monzon said he became a volunteer for the Karapatan’s allied organization called Hustisya (Justice), but he was eventually made to join the Anak Bayan unit where he was appointed as spokesman.
He said he also lived at a Kabataan party list headquarters and was tasked to lecture on students in various campuses across the region. Monzon said he also became a member of the Kabatang Makabayan, one of the CTG’s underground movement.
Later on, Monzon said he was deployed as a countryside lecturer and became the secretary-general of the “Pasakaday Salugpongan Kalimodan” (PASAKA), the rebel’s front organization that allegedly exploited indigenous people (IP).
“It is based on a defense mechanism, to demonize the military in a public campaign using the IPs and to pressure government troops to abandon hinterland areas under their influence” Monzon
explained, adding that the IPs were also used to get international funding.
The issuance of warrants of arrests against him forced Monzon to flee to the mountains as instructed by his commanders, and for fear of being liquidated by the soldiers.
However, the hardships he suffered while in hiding, along with the rigors of combat training compelled him to return to the folds of the law, along with his two companions.
The trio surrendered to local authorities led by Davao Oriental Gov. Nelson Dayanghirang.