Leftists and/or progressives being sympathetic to the deaths of activists in NPA territories are giving red-tagging credibility
Red tagging: Red-tagging is the malicious labeling of individuals or organizations as communists, subversives, or terrorists by state forces or government officials
I am mostly impartial towards this issue and wait for further information before making an opinion. But I am slightly biased in the way that I live in the region with NPA influence so I know much more of the operations than than the usual Filipino.
I hated how red tagging became common especially during Covid when the NTF was red tagging community pantries. These were just blatant unfounded accusations but now? Not so much
Those activists who died were names that had a history of credibility behind them. It makes sense why they are where they are. But thats not the problem here. The problem is people justifying if they *did* join the NPA. We are now seeing the common Filipino leftist defending terrorism and the social media posts reach to hundreds and thousands of positive reception. Especially the latest death of Vince Dingding, who was a full on insurgent and yet there are still thousands of people defending him.
I support the right to protest, to be an activist. We need more voices to fight against oppression. But this? Its just pure terrorism that never achieved anything. And thats what the government is seeing. Its not a coincidence anymore. They have a reasonable cause to red tag student leaders now. Because whats worse than student leaders becoming insurgents? Those student leaders also corrupting the students they lead.