SEN. Panfilo Lacson yesterday said a consultation with stakeholders on the fate of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. as spokesman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is not necessary.
Lacson, said National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon only needs to read and understand Article XVI, section 5, paragraph 4 of the 1987 Constitution and he would know what to do.
Esperon on Wednesday said Parlade and Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy will stay as spokespersons of the NTF-ELCAC while he meet with stakeholders to discuss and decide on intensified calls from senators to remove the two from their posts.
Esperon, who is the NTF-ELCAC vice chairperson, said he would need a week to make his decision.
Lacson stressed that what Esperon needs to do is to comprehend the constitutional provision, which states that “No member of the Armed Forces in the active service shall, at any time, be appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the Government, including government-owned or controlled corporations or any of their subsidiaries.”
“He may not even need one week to review that,” Lacson said.
Senators have been calling for the relief of Paralade as NTF-ELCAC got red-tagging individuals, the latest of whom was Ana Patricia Non, the organizer of the community panty along Maginhawa street in Quezon City.
The Senate committee on national defense, which Lacson chairs, had previously conducted hearings on the red-tagging issue and had recommended the replacement of Parlade as task force spokesman since it is unconstitutional for men in the active uniform service to hold civilian positions.
Lacson said it would not be hard for Esperon to determine if the NTF-ELCAC is a civilian office or a unit under the Armed Forces of the Philippines since all he has to do is consult with the legal experts in Malacañang.
Aside from the red-tagging issue, Parlade has likewise caught the ire of fifteen senators who want him censured for saying that senators pushing for the defunding of the task force were “stupid.”
“Meanwhile, Article XVI, Sec. 3 of the Constitution also decrees that the Armed Forces shall be insulated from partisan politics. As such ‘no member of the military shall engage, directly or indirectly, in any partisan political activity, except to vote,” Lacson said.
Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon said Esperson has no other option to consider but to order Parlade’s relief as NTF-ELCAC spokesman.
“Moreover, that Gen. Parlade should be relieved of his designation as NTF-ELCAC’s spokesperson is not a matter of President Duterte’s micro-managing the NTF-ELCAC as (presidential spokesman Harry) Sec Roque claims, but a matter of compliance with the constitutional prohibition,” Drilon said.
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday said reiterated the need for Congress to pass a bill criminalizing “red-tagging” in the country as he noted recent “quite disturbing” red-tagging incidents.
“In the past few months, sunod sunod na ang reklamo about red tagging and people have expressed their voice against it so might as well have one because the frequency of this act loosely called as red tagging has become really quite disturbing if I may say,” Guevarra told ABS CBN News Channel.
“If Congress is minded to investigate and prosecute actual acts which are loosely called red-tagging at this point in time, then appropriate legislation should be enacted because right not acts considered or deemed red-tagging is not punishable exactly for what it is,” he added.
He explained that in the absence of a law clearly defining and penalizing the act of red-tagging, the best that an offended party can do is to file complaints related to but not fitting to the act complained such as libel, defamation or coercion.
Guevarra confirmed that no case has been filed against Parlade over his controversial statements against Non. “Maybe the reason for this is because there is no law against red tagging right now,” he said. — With Ashzel Hachero
