UNPOPULAR OPINION| The Hypocrisy of Red Bragging

There is a peculiar double standard in the way some “activist groups” present themselves to the public.

On one hand, their leaders and spokespersons proudly glorify the New People’s Army (NPA) in speeches, rallies, and videos. They hold luksang parangal—tributes that romanticize the deaths of youths who chose the violence of the “people’s war” to address the ills of Philippine society. They wave CPP flags at demonstrations and wear t-shirts with the faces of Ka Roger Rosal, Jose Maria Sison, Ka Parago, and other so-called martyrs of the national democratic revolution. On the other hand, they lash out when these very statements, protest actions, and propaganda materials are cited as evidence of their alignment with the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing.

This is the phenomenon of red bragging: publicly boasting about the supposed heroism of the CPP-NPA-NDFP’s armed revolution, only to recoil in indignation when confronted with the consequences.

In 2020, League of Filipino Students (LFS) spokesperson Kara Taggaoa declared at a Mendiola rally that the group is proud of its alumni who have joined the NPA. Straight from the horse’s mouth, this was no vague allusion but a direct admission that their movement celebrates those who abandon classrooms for the battlefield. If that is not glorification of rebellion, what is?

Another example is Charisse Bañez, then LFS chairperson and Anakbayan secretary-general, who was caught on video proclaiming: “Darating ang araw na babagtasin namin ang mga kanayunan bilang mga kasapi ng Bagong Hukbong Bayan!” This was not metaphor or symbolism—it was incitement to rebellion. In speech after speech, Bañez pushed the idea that revolution, not reform, was the only path forward. Years later, her words caught up with her. She was arrested in Agusan del Sur along with seven others—not as a peasant organizer, but as a confirmed NPA member.

So here lies the double standard. When “revolutionary martyrs” are praised, revolution rationalized, and violence romanticized, they call it free speech and political expression. True. But this cuts both ways. When their ideology is exposed as being aligned with that of the CPP-NPA, they retreat and brand truth-tellers as “red-taggers,” hurling labels meant to silence those who expose them. In short, they want the privilege of glorifying the CPP-NPA without the accountability that comes with it.

Words matter. If one openly declares support for a group that has sown decades of violence—ambushes, extortion, recruitment of minors, the killing of soldiers and civilians—then society is within its rights to call that out. Being branded supporters of terrorism is not baseless when the proof lies in their own words and deeds.

The danger of red bragging lies in its effect on public perception. It paints rebellion as noble, erasing the suffering of communities that have long borne the brunt of insurgency. Worse, it lures the next generation into mistaking violent extremism for activism, and armed violence for patriotism.

At the end of the day, you cannot cheer for the NPA and then act shocked when people call you an NPA supporter. If you glorify revolution, do not be surprised when society remembers the blood that comes with it.

Red bragging may draw cheers at rallies, but in the light of day, it reveals a hypocrisy that would be laughable in its irony if it weren’t so dangerous. Because in truth, it blurs the line between activism that glorifies armed violence and activism that truly seeks to change society without destroying it.