In the Philippines context, red-tagging refers to individuals and organisations that are black-listed because they do not fully support the views or actions of the government. Red-tagging consequences may include vilification, surveillance, harassment, unlawful arrests, enforced disappearance, and even killings. Often, the red-tagging rhetoric incorporates the idea of foreign interference and civil society organisations are accused of subverting Filipino society for the benefit of foreign agents. This way, the Philippines government uses national security as the argument to red-tag members of CSOs, journalists, and activists. In this podcast episode, Jonathan De Santos discusses how the Philippines government incorporates the rhetoric of foreign interference to red-tag CSOs.

Jonathan De Santos is the chairperson of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines. This podcast episode is part of the Foreign Interference Laws in Southeast Asia series, in partnership with the Japan NGO Centre for International Cooperation. To learn more about foreign interference laws, read Foreign Interference Laws in Southeast Asia: Deepening the Shrinkage of Civic Space.