The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) started on Monday, July 29, its fact-finding inquiry into cases of red-tagging in the country in its efforts to push for legislative measures to address the issue.

In a statement, the CHR said its inquiry is part of its conscious efforts to formulate mechanisms that would hopefully prevent further human rights violations and abuses related to red-tagging.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had ruled that "red-tagging, vilification, labelling, and guilty by association" as threats to one's right to life, liberty, and security.

The CHR's two-day inquiry is entitled "Public Inquiry on the Current Situation of Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) with focus on incidents of Red-Tagging."

It said it will gather the opinions of researchers, educators, investigators, and people with experience in policy development in the hopes of understanding their perspectives and determining the acts and practices that constitute red-tagging.

The first session will involve domestic and international resource persons who have established a reputation in identifying patterns of systemic violations before, during, and after the acts constituting red-tagging.

"This public inquiry is a product of CHR’s proactive approach towards fostering a constructive dialogue across all stakeholders on the phenomenon of red-tagging," CHR Chairperson Richard Palpal-latoc said.

"We recognize that it is a widespread practice, therefore a matter of serious concern which may pose grave threats to one’s life, liberty, and security. We hope that this inquiry will help us come up with concrete recommendations to ultimately address the situation through the willingness of duty-bearers and rights-holders to participate in this undertaking," he said.

The CHR said this "progressive" dialogue with the public will help provide a legal basis for duty-bearers to protect Filipinos who are most susceptible to the practice of red-tagging, as they will be coming up with effective accountability and redress mechanisms to combat the issue of red-tagging.

"We are the bridge between the government and civil society. In a democratic country where freedom of expression and peaceful assemblies sit at the core of every Filipino’s right to public participation, it is about time that we take measures to protect all Filipinos from acts which may stigmatize them and put their lives, liberty, and security in peril," Palpal-latoc also said.