CAGAYAN DE ORO – The anti-discrimination and fair campaigning guidelines for the 2025 midterm elections were finally released by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on February 19. Human rights group Karapatan urged the poll body to strictly enforce the rule even on the state forces.

The group stressed that red-tagging, the practice of labeling individuals and organizations as communists or terrorists without due process, creates a foreboding environment, which may compromise the safety of candidates as well as their supporters and voters.

“We hope these guidelines will be strictly enforced, even on the military, police, and other state forces such as the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and persons under their command or influence,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay in a statement.

Read: Red-taggers, rights violators vying for 2025 elections flagged

Comelec Resolution No. 11116 was promulgated a week after the start of the campaign period on February 11. This applies to 2025 national and local elections and for the first-ever parliamentary elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Section 3 of the same resolution states that any discriminatory act – committed either in person or through any media platforms – on the basis of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) status, coercion, labeling, discrimination against women and persons with disabilities, including gender-based harassment and violation of religious and cultural rights is liable for an election offense. 

The word “red-tagging” was not used in the resolution. Labeling, however, refers to the act of associating, naming, and accusing individuals or organizations as subversive group sympathizers, terrorists, or criminal syndicates without evidence. 

This includes the display of election materials in public areas that contain photographs and words linking individuals and organizations to such groups.

The human rights group said, “guidelines such as this are long overdue. Although they fall short of specifically mentioning red-tagging as an election offense, we believe the description of prohibited acts encompasses the nefarious practice of red-tagging,” which threatens someone’s right to life, liberty, and security based on a Supreme Court declaration.

In Cagayan de Oro, several posters were spotted in major streets, tagging Kabataan Partylist, Bayan Muna, and the Alliance of Health Workers Partylist as part of the revolutionary groups Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the National Democratic Front. 

These posters were allegedly placed prior to the February 11 visit of some senatorial candidates and party-list nominees under the Makabayan Coalition in the city.

Read: Progressives slam red-tagging of party-list groups in Cagayan de Oro

According to media reports, Comelec received a letter from an unnamed government agency that strongly opposed its anti-discrimination guidelines during elections. Comelec Chairman George Erwin Garcia admitted that they felt they were red-tagged while reading the letter.

Karapatan urged the commission to be “incisive” in addressing complaints. “Entities like the NTF-ELCAC could easily claim that their red-tagging forays are based on evidence by citing the perjured statements of their bogus or coerced witnesses.”

Section 264 of the Omnibus Election Code states that a person found guilty of any election offense shall be penalized with one to six years of imprisonment with no probation, and the violator shall be disqualified from holding public office. (RVO)