56 2020 Annual Report on the Human Rights Situation in the Philippines crackdown against these concerned groups and individuals. The critics are being branded as a threat to the nation. President Duterte’s stewardship during the coronavirus pandemic has been punctuated by what human rights advocates call a chilling disregard for the poor and the persecuted.248 187 The act itself of redtagging constitutes a grave threat to the lives, liberty, and security of human rights defenders. At the most extreme, redtagging renders citizens as unfair targets of violence, arrest, disappearance, and even liquidation. This is not unknown in the Philippines. The findings in 2007 of Professor Philip Alston, then UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, that the killings and enforced disappearances of activists affiliated with organizations were preceded by red-tagging by the AFP, to date, continue to be a State practice. 188 One hundred and thirty-four (134) human rights defenders have reportedly been killed since the beginning of the President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (PRRD) administration’s term. From January 2019 to March 2020, the CHR recorded a total of 62 cases of human rights violations committed against human rights defenders. From 1 June 2019 to 30 June 2020 alone, the CHR investigated seven (7) killings of human rights defenders. One of the cases investigated by the CHR involves the killing of an indigenous person, who was a rights defender and a staunch critic of militarization in Compostela Valley. 189 The CHR is also investigating the murder of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant and peasant leader Randall Echanis, who was found dead at his apartment in Quezon City, and that of Negros-based human rights advocate Zara Alvarez, who was gunned down by unidentified men in Bacolod City. 190 Peace consultant and labor activist Randy Echanis was stabbed and killed at his home in Quezon City. He was also the chair of Anakpawis, a party-list advocating for the rights of workers. The murder of Echanis demonstrates how red-tagging endangers the lives of human rights workers in the country who are doing legitimate work.249 248 Business & Human Rights Centre. Philippines: Brutal crackdown on activists and environmental defenders amid spread of COVID-19. 3 April 2020. Available at https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/philippines-brutal – crackdown-on-activists-and-environmental-defenders-amid-spread-of-covid-19/, accessed 24 September 2020. 249 Ibid.