Author Lualhati Bautista hits back at Facebook user over red-tagging post

Novelist Lualhati Bautista called out a Facebook user and threatened to press cyber libel charges against him after she was red-tagged in a comment.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, August 11, the Dekada 70 author posted a screenshot of the comment, which was made by a certain Jefferson Lodia Badong.

“Trolls! Trolls are everywhere! They’re as devilish as COVID! It seems I’m a magnet for trolls!” said Bautista in her post.

In another post, she wrote: “I have already taken a screenshot of your picture and your profile so I will have something to show just in case you suddenly deactivate your account. Because I had already talked to my lawyer and he said it is possible to file cyberlibel case against you if I want to go that far. So please be hereby advised.”

Badong’s comment – which Bautista kept a screenshot of — reads: “Nagbabasa ako. Kilala mo ba is Lualhati Bautista? NPA yon oo. Maging siya sinulat niya sa aklat niya. Di lang Google source ko. Natuto ako magbasa ng aklat bago kayo natutong mag Facebook. Wag mo ako turuan ng facts.”

(I do read. Do you know Lualhati Bautista? She’s a member of the NPA. She even wrote it in her books. Google isn’t my only source. I learned to read a book before I learned how to use Facebook. Don’t try to teach me facts.)

The NPA, or the New People’s Army, is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Bautista did not indicate where Badong had made the comment.

Red-tagging, according to the Philippine Supreme Court, is “the act of labeling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists (used as) a strategy…by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies of the State.'”

The act becomes even more dangerous in wake of the Anti-Terror Law, which human rights advocates and lawyers have said could be used to curtail free speech. Red-tagging also carries with it the threats of physical harm.

Bautista later confirmed that Badong apologized to her via private message. “Don’t lambast him anymore. All’s well that ends well,” she said.

Bautista’s work includes Bata, Bata… Pa’no Ka Ginawa? and Gapo. 

A few weeks back, artist Julienne Dadivas called out a Facebook page, The Right Bulusan, for editing her artwork – which was made to protest what was then the Anti-Terror Bill – into a post to red-tag activists. – Rappler.com