UNPOPULAR OPINION | Anakbayan Southern Mindanao Has Yet to Explain Its NPA Links

Anakbayan Southern Mindanao’s latest statement against former member Jam Saguino once again avoids addressing the details of her experience in Anakbayan and the New People’s Army. Instead of directly refuting her claims, the group dismissed her as a red-tagger and attacked her credibility.

On August 24, Anakbayan Southern Mindanao condemned Saguino after she spoke about her experience during an National Service Training Program orientation at the University of Southeastern Philippines on August 22.

Saguino was once the spokesperson of Anakbayan in Zamboanga and later served as its National Vice Chairperson for Mindanao. More importantly, she eventually joined the New People’s Army and became Secretary of Guerrilla Front 20, operating in Davao de Oro, before eventually returning to the government.

These are details that cannot simply be erased by calling someone a “red-tagger.” In her retelling of her experiences, Saguino said the relationship went beyond ordinary student activism. She described herself and other Anakbayan leaders at the time as CPP cadres and later described how former activists were deployed into NPA units.

Anakbayan is free to reject them. It is free to argue that Saguino’s memories are inaccurate, that she misunderstood the organization she once led, or that her account is fabricated.

But Saguino is only one of many former activist turned NPA members that can attest to that. Another former rebel leader Arian Jane Ramos has also been exposing Anakbayan and its allied organizations as terror groomers. Ramos was also an activist turned NPA Secretary in southern Mindanao until she surrendered to the government in 2021.

If Saguino’s account is false, the Anakbayan should be able to confront the details. What exactly did she get wrong? Was she never a national vice chairperson for Mindanao? Was she never a member of the CPP? Was she never part of Guerrilla Front 20? Did she never interact with people who later became NPA combatants?

Calling someone a red-tagger is particularly convenient because it avoids the uncomfortable question of why have people who once held leadership positions in Anakbayan repeatedly described a connection between the organization and the underground movement?

Jam Saguino has already put her story on the table. If Anakbayan Southern Mindanao believes that account is false, then it should challenge the account itself, point by point. Until it does, repeatedly calling former members “red-taggers” will remain an easier response than confronting the questions their testimonies raise.