Magalong stands ground in assuring Baguio safe from red-tagging sprees

March 23, 2022 JUST IN

BAGUIO CITY (March 22, 2022)—Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong has stood his ground in assuring the city is safe against red-tagging sprees.
This, amidst a strongly-worded statement of the multi-agency anti-insurgency task force NTF-ELCAC Monday chiding the city mayor’s apparent “coddling” of left-leaning groups whom the former tags as CPP-NPA’s fronts.
Magalong earlier ordered the city police to tear down all tarpaulins strewn around the city tagging left-leaning groups and their leaders as terrorists-communists.  He had also assured that red-tagging has no place in the city.
“That the very head of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict of the Cordillera Autonomous Region and the Regional Peace and Order Council of the CAR now cavorts and gives protection to organizations (KABATAAN Partylist/Cordillera People’s Alliance)  that he knows full well are fronts of the terrorist organization CPP NPA NDF and that he mouths dangerous lies he knows are used by this terrorist organization to lure our children to be violent extremists for the CPP NPA NDF and for which an unbearable number of them have died underscores the enormity of the challenge before us and it underscores too the betrayals the Filipino people suffer from the hands of the very people who are supposed to protect them,” NTF-ELCAC spokesperson USec. Lorraine Badoy said in a statement Monday.
But Magalong on Tuesday argued,” NTF-ELCAC officials should be more circumspect in their statements, underscoring that respecting and protecting human rights is part of good governance.”   He added, “I am on the side of truth kaya di ako takot… stop manipulating the truth,” he said, after explaining that attending activities of different groups, including those identified with the Left, does not mean support.
He further urged the NTF-ELCAC, “should have practice due diligence and asked members of RTF-ELCAC his performance and contributions as member of the regional body.”
Badoy though earlier fumed “Magalong also uses the term, redtagging, a weapon he fully knows is used by the CPP NPA NDF to silence anyone who speaks the truth about their deceitful fronts and that our courts including the Supreme Court have already clearly ruled: “there is no danger to life, liberty and security when one is identified as a member of the CPP NPA NDF”.   She added, “(Magalong)claims he is doing all that because he cares for our children- while at the same time lending his powerful protection to the terrorist CPP NPA NDF front, KABATAAN Partylist- the top recruiter of our children into the criminal NPA for which an UNBEARABLE number of them have died while fighting government troops and an even more UNBEARABLE number of them now lie in shallow unmarked graves across the country, lost to the mothers and fathers who, doubtless, searched the ends of the earth for them.”
Badoy went on to “berate” (Magalong) “Mayor, tamaan ka naman sana ng hiya sa ginagawa mo. Hindi na bale kung ang KABAG na mga urban operatives ng CPP NPA NDF ang nagsasabi ng mga pinagsasabi mo. Pero nanggagaling ang kasinungalingan na ito sa pinuno ng RTF ELCAC CAR/ RPOC CAR, dating Heneral ng PNP at graduate ng PMA.”
She further went on,  “Mayor, sa ngalan pati ng lampas 50,000 na mga pulis at sundalo na pinagpapatay ng CPP NPA NDF at ang mga pamilya nila, sana mahanap mo uli ang hiya at dangal mo.”
“Benjie Magalong is the angel of acrid necessity who brings to us the painful message of betrayal and he shows us who it is we must give our precious trust to,” Badoy also said, adding, “Clearly Mayor Benjie Magalong is no Mayor Digong Duterte whose love for country can never be questioned and whose courage to defend and protect us from these terrorists is legendary and unparalleled.”
But Magalong appealed to the NTF-ELCAC to respect local officials who are engaging constituents on issues and not be judgemental. “No bullying please.”.

Artemio A. Dumlao