CAGAYAN DE ORO — Youth volunteers of Kabataan Partylist were verbally harassed and allegedly red-tagged by a man while they were conducting house-to-house campaign in Matina Aplaya, Davao City, on Wednesday, April 23.

A video circulating on social media showed that the man involved was accusing these volunteers in a loud voice that they were peddlers of “fake news.” Despite the advice to cool off, he refused to listen, tearing down a campaign flyer of Kabataan Partylist. 

It can also be seen that while they were thanking the people who took the time to listen, the man became hysterical, raucously telling a female volunteer to stay away from him. He also brought up the issue of young individuals who were taken from their parents, which usually refers to the situation of young people who decided to join the armed struggle, a typical red-tagging rhetoric used against progressive organizations.

Notwithstanding this behavior, the volunteers remained calm in sharing the party-list group’s accomplishments, advocacies, and platforms for the upcoming 2025 midterm elections next month.

In a Facebook post, activist Beverly Gofredo who faced the man said they still listened to his opinion despite the negative remarks thrown at them. If they had a chance, she said they would have explained that Kabataan Partylist is not part of the New People’s Army.

Kabataan Partylist Southern Mindanao Region denounced what they called a blatant attack and red-tagging against the youth. It was not captured in the video, but the group claimed that these volunteers were tagged as members of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the NPA.

It said that the incident is a violation of Resolution No. 11116, or the Anti-Discrimination and Fair Campaigning Guidelines, issued by the Commission on Elections.

Read: Comelec urged to enforce red-tagging guidelines even on state forces

Section 3 of the said resolution states that any discriminatory act, which includes labeling, is liable for an election offense. Labeling refers to the act of associating, naming, and accusing individuals or organizations as subversive group sympathizers, terrorists, or criminal syndicates without evidence. 

According to Section 264 of the Omnibus Election Code, 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.

“In Davao City, where impunity is perpetuated by the Duterte dynasty, we call on the youth to stand their ground, fight back, and continue the militant Filipino spirit,” the group said in a statement.Kabataan is one of the progressive party-list groups repeatedly red-tagged. In Cagayan de Oro, a poster tagging the group as part of the revolutionary organizations was seen in one of the major streets, which the Kabataan Partylist Northern Mindanao said was proof of “endless intimidation and deception of the State against organized and progressive voices.” (DAA)