The operator of an independent bookstore in Quezon City has cried foul on Tuesday, March 22, after its walls were vandalized by unknown suspects in an apparent case of red-tagging.
In a Facebook post, Popular Bookstore posted the malicious markings painted on the wall of its bookstore that read: "NPA terorista" (National People's Army terrorists).
The management said their initial reaction "was not fear," but "dismay and exasperation."
"Books are not bullets and bombs. Books are for education and enlightenment. It is a repository of history and culture. It is what differentiates humankind from animals," it wrote.
"To those responsible for this philistine act, we would like to reiterate that Popular Bookstore is a bookseller to booklovers (obviously, you don't belong)."
Last year, removal of books and documents published by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) were removed in at least three state university libraries.
The removal was done to supposedly "protect" the youth and students from insurgent ideology, a move the Academics Unite for Democracy and Human Rights likened to the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1993 where public and university libraries and book shops were raided to pillage books considered "subversive."
READ MORE: 'Hands off our libraries': Educator laments removal of NDFP books from university libraries