Even as the Philippines ’ Supreme Court began hearing petitions on Tuesday against an anti-terrorism law that seeks – among other things – to root out communist rebels, a host of Filipinos have already been marked out as such, in a deadly form of labelling known locally as “red-tagging”. Hundreds of accused communists are thought to have lost their lives since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016, with the United Nations ’ Human Rights Office reporting at least 248 human rights defenders, legal professionals, journalists and trade unionists killed in relation to their work between 2015 and 2019. Those accused of being communists or their accomplices run the gamut from students to lawyers, environmental activists, political opposition figures and clergymen. Even retired judges Antonio Carpio and Conchita Morales have found themselves “red-tagged” in recent weeks – the evidence against them seemingly being their outspoken opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Act, which Duterte signed into law in July and which critics say violates civil liberties. Will the Philippines’ anti-terror bill crush communists, or give them a boost? As opponents of the new law, the pair are among those who “can no longer be called legitimate dissenters” Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jnr of the Philippines Armed Forces wrote in a Facebook post on January 16. “Your agenda is clear: it is not dissent, it is sedition. It is to topple a democratically-elected president,” he wrote, adding: “Very soon, blood debts will be settled. The long arm of the law will catch up on you, and your supporters.” Parlade’s remarks – in which he mentioned left-wing lawmakers Ferdinand Gaite, Carlos Zarate and Sarah Elago by name – constituted “a clear threat” that was “designed to intimidate” petitioners, Carpio and Morales told their former colleagues on the Supreme Court last week in a manifestation and motion bringing attention to the Facebook post. Why are overseas Filipinos worried about Duterte’s anti-terror law? The military official’s comments could even be seen as violating the anti-terrorism law itself, the petitioners argued, as it explicitly prohibits acts intended “to intimidate the general public or … create an atmosphere or spread a message of fear”. On Tuesday, the court said it “took note” of the threats against the petitioners as it began hearing oral arguments on 37 petitions asking the court to declare the anti-terrorism law unconstitutional. “I am personally not afraid because nobody in the military will believe I am a terrorist,” Carpio told This Week in Asia . “But I am worried about the others.” The Philippines is home to Asia’s longest-running communist insurgency which Duterte has repeatedly vowed to end during his term in office. The new Anti-Terrorism Act gives his government what rights group Amnesty International characterised in a November report as “further unchecked powers to unduly target anyone who may be red-tagged”, given its vague definition of what constitutes terrorism . It allows authorities to monitor and wiretap suspected communists for 90 days and detain them without charge for up to 24 days, while those found guilty can be imprisoned for life without parole. This is of particular concern to anyone who has wrongly found themselves labelled a communist, such as the eight or more University of the Philippines’ alumni included in a since-debunked list of New People’s Army (NPA) members supposedly killed or captured by the military. The list, which was published on a Facebook page associated with the Philippines Armed Forces last month, has since been taken down and the country’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence sacked over its publication – yet not before it was widely circulated, indelibly associating the names upon it with the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Not only is red-tagging a breach of international humanitarian laws and a direct threat to our right to security, it is also fatal to the free expression underpinning our democracy Rafael Aquino, lawyer “My family and I continue to feel threatened and insecure on account of my inclusion in the said list,” lawyer Rafael Aquino of the Free Legal Assistance Group, which is representing journalists petitioning the Supreme Court over the anti-terrorism law, said in a statement afterwards. “Not only is red-tagging a breach of international humanitarian laws and a direct threat to our right to security, it is also fatal to the free expression underpinning our democracy.” Philippine security officials have pointed to a speech that CPP founder Jose Maria Sison gave in 1987 – replayed during a November 3 Senate hearing on red-tagging – as exposing a number of organisations in the country as communist fronts, this despite him describing the entities he lists in the speech as “legal democratic forces” that are not “the forces of armed revolution”. At the Senate hearing, Senator Grace Poe told security officials that the red-tagging “tactic has limits, and often backfires” when it “becomes a clear and present physical danger to the tagged”. Yet National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon justified authorities going after red-tagged groups to cut off the supply of fresh recruits for the communist insurgency, which he said was led by the CPP as “the brain or the mastermind”, the NPA as “the army” and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines political coalition as “the shield” that continues to secretly recruit for the NPA. Communist rebels present “a clear and present danger” and “the number one … political security threat” to the Philippines, Esperon told senators at the time. Philippines’ ‘Diliman Commune’ uprising a renewed symbol of resistance 50 years on Last month, the University of the Philippines became the latest victim of red-tagging after the country’s defence secretary suddenly announced he was nullifying a 32-year-old agreement banning soldiers from entering any of its campuses without prior notice . Under Duterte, military officers and internet trolls have taken to painting the 112-year-old state institution as a hive of communist agents who “recruit” students to join the NPA as political cadres.