The National Union ofJournalists of the Philippines denounces the people behind the Facebook page “Kamatooran” for red-tagging us and our former director Cong Corrales, associate editor of Cagayan de Oro’s Gold Star Daily.

This page, which names itself “truth” yet slanders behind the shield of anonymity, calls us a “propaganda arm” of the communist rebels and cites as “proof” of its outlandish claims Cong’s critical stance against local reportage of the police raid on the lumad bakwit school in a campus of the University of San Carlos in Cebu City.

We also call the attention of Uswag Radio Bukidnon, on which Kamatooran’s false claims were shared by a Facebook account purporting to be that of a DepEd employees but whose page, like Kamatooran’s, is full of red-tagging posts, including against legal personalities who have also been targeted for vilification by state forces.

We urge the radio station to exercise due diligence in allowing the sharing of material on its social media assets, especially that which may be libelous or otherwise illegal.

We reiterate that red-tagging is more than slander because the practice puts people in very real danger. There is a long and growing list of red-tagged persons who have been murdered or unjustly arrested and jailed.

We call on the civil authorities of Bukidnon and Valencia to investigate Kamatooran and get the persons behind this criminal page.

We call on the media community of Cagayan de Oro, Misamis Oriental, and Bukidnon to rally around our colleague Cong and join us in denouncing this criminal attack on his person and the endangerment of our members.

Reference:

National Directorate

+639175155991