Actress Liza Soberano has not yet decided whether to take legal actions against netizens who “red-tagged” her for having appeared in a webinar of Gabriela Youth.
(FACEBOOK / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Our client has no instructions for that at the moment,” said lawyer Juanito Lim, the legal counsel of the celebrity, during an interview on CNN Philippines on Friday.
He also thanked Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., commander of the military’s Southern Luzon Command and spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), for telling netizens not to “red-tag” her.
Upon the instructions of Soberano, Lim said he reached out to Parlade and they were able to have a cordial telephone conversation on Thursday afternoon.
“I am very happy that it would appear that the government, that the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is very responsive to the calls or communications from the civilian sector,” the lawyer said.
“Liza knows that the interviewer is the Gabriela Youth but she is not aware that the Gabriela Youth is under the radar of the AFP of some sort,” he explained.
Last week, Soberano spoke at a forum organized by the Gabriela Youth which tackled various issues being faced by girls and young women amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, her participation in the webinar drew the attention of netizens who associated her with the group which has alleged links with communist rebels.
Though he told netizens not to “red-tag” her, Perlade advised Soberano that she has “a chance to abdicate that group” and not follow the paths of other Gabriela Youth members who joined the New People’s Army (NPA) and ended up dead during military encounters.
“We take note of the general’s advice, unsolicited as it may be,” Lim said
“However, we would like everyone to know that Ms. Soberano will continue to exercise her constitutionally protected right to free speech and expression without fear and restraint from anyone,” the lawyer said.