HANDS OFF DEAN TONY LA VIÑA! ABOLISH NTF-ELCAC!

Katribu condemns the red-tagging and political vilification perpetrated by the notorious retired military general and former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) official, Antonio Parlade, against Atty. Antonio “Dean Tony” La Viña.

Dean Tony is a staunch advocate of Indigenous Peoples and has long served as legal counsel to Indigenous activists, organizations, communities, and other victims of human rights violations. He was among the legal counsels for the Indigenous and Moro Peoples’ petition challenging the Anti-Terrorism Law before the Supreme Court, for the search and surfacing of desaparecidos Dexter and Bazoo, among others.

As a Mindanaoan, Dean Tony has consistently stood in defense of the Lumad and other Indigenous Peoples, providing principled legal support to communities facing militarization, displacement, and rights violations. His commitment to justice and the rule of law is now being maliciously distorted through baseless red-tagging.

That these attacks come from a former NTF-ELCAC official underscores the dangerous and continuing practice of weaponizing state-backed narratives to silence dissent. This incident forms part of a broader pattern of the criminalization of solidarity, where individuals and institutions that stand with Indigenous Peoples and human rights defenders are vilified, harassed, and threatened. Katribu stresses that such actions endanger lives and undermine the rights to legal representation, free expression, and collective action in the pursuit of justice.

Reference:

Beverly Longid

National Convener, Katribu