Mindanao lawyers’ group slams red-tagging of fellow lawyer
DAVAO CITY—The Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) condemned retired Army officer Antonio Parlade Jr.’s recent posts tagging human rights defender and environmental lawyer Antonio La Viña as sympathetic to communists, following the latter’s legal defense of former party list lawmakers Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna) and France Castro (ACT Teachers).
UPLM said Parlade’s attack on La Viña for performing his sworn duty as a lawyer was a direct assault on the right to counsel and the independence of the legal profession.
“By equating the zealous defense of human rights and clients with sympathy for armed rebellion, Parlade seeks to criminalize legal advocacy itself,” the group said in a statement signed by lawyer Antonio Azarcon, UPLM chair, and lawyer Dexter Arvin Lopoz, UPLM spokesperson.
“This not only intimidates lawyers but undermines the entire justice system, deterring legal professionals from taking on cases involving activists, dissenters, and the marginalized,” it added.
Landmark SC decision
The group was reacting to a series of posts by Parlade attacking La Viña, the former dean of the Ateneo School of Government.
In his post titled “Who is Atty. Tony La Viña and why he loves the CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) so much,” Parlade claimed that La Viña defended the activists because he was sympathetic to the CPP himself.
“Mga kabaro mo (Your colleagues),” he said in another post showing a photo of Ocampo and La Viña.
The lawyers’ group cited the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on the case of Siegfred D. Deduro v. Maj. Gen. Eric C. Vinoya promulgated on July 4, 2023 (G.R. No. 254753), which ruled that “Red-tagging, vilification, labeling, and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty, or security” and may justify the issuance of a writ of amparo, a legal remedy for protection.
According to the lawyers, the ruling provides a powerful legal shield against Parlade’s tactics as it affirmed that “the fear induced by Red-tagging is not imagined but is a real and clear threat to an individual’s security that the law must address.”
The landmark ruling was based on a “clear understanding of the grave consequences of Red-tagging,” UPLM said. “The Court acknowledged that labeling a person as a communist or terrorist makes them a target for vigilantes, paramilitary groups, or even state agents.”
The ruling, they added, particularly stressed that a person “should not be expected to await his own abduction, or worse, death” before seeking protection from such threats.
Public vilification
“This judicial recognition aligns with a documented and tragic pattern where public vilification precedes violence, as the Court noted in the case of petitioner Siegfred Deduro, a former Bayan Muna congressman,” the statement said, noting that international human rights organizations and United Nations experts long documented this practice as a “severe form of harassment and intimidation that silences critics and endangers lives.”
The group urged the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and all officers of the court to “vigorously defend the independence of the bar and condemn all forms of intimidation against lawyers.”
UPLM also echoed the call of human rights defenders for Congress to pass a law criminalizing the act of Red-tagging and urged the Marcos administration, the Philippine National Police, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to publicly repudiate Parlade’s statements and adhere to the Supreme Court’s ruling to ensure the safety of all human rights defenders.
It said it stood in “unwavering” solidarity with La Viña, and held Parlade directly responsible for any threat to his safety arising from his statements.
Parlade served as commander of the military’s Southern Luzon Command. He resigned as spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-Elcac in 2021.
“We will not be cowed. We will continue to defend the defenseless, advocate for the oppressed, and uphold the rule of law and justice—using the Supreme Court’s own words and authority to condemn and combat those who would weaponize lies to undermine justice and peace, particularly in Mindanao,” the Mindanao lawyers said.
