This practice, known as “red-tagging,” has led labour activists to withdraw from unions and individual unions to end their affiliations with trade union federations critical of the government. Human Rights Watch research in the Southern Tagalog region, south of Manila, where many foreign companies operate in “ special economic zones ,” found that local officials and members of the police or military repeatedly visit the homes of union leaders and officers, and threaten action against them for allegedly being members or sympathizers of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.