LT. GEN. Antonio Parlade and communications undersecretary Lorraine Badoy will remain as spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for now, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said yesterday.
However, Esperon said he would consult with stakeholders within the week and come up with a decision on the call of several lawmakers for the removal of Parlade and Badoy from their posts.
“For now, Gen. Parlade and undersecretary Badoy, who is also the chairman of the strategic communication cluster… (will) remain in their positions but we will have a review within the week, and we will exercise, we will see the options that are available to us. We are not insensitive to the sentiments of our supporters in Congress,” Esperon said in an interview with CNN Philippines.
Esperon over the weekend ordered Parlade and Badoy to cease from commenting on the community pantry issue after a public outcry over the two spokespersons’ red-tagging of some of the pantry organizers, including Ana Patricia Non who organized the Maginhawa community pantry.
On Tuesday, 15 senators filed a resolution censuring Parlade over his “stupid” remark against senators who have threatened to defund the NTF-ELCAC after he red-tagged community pantry organizers.
In filing the resolution and in pushing for Parlade’s and Badoy’s removal as spokespersons, senators noted Parlade’s social media post likening Non to “Satan,” and Badoy’s allegation that Non is supposedly known as “Ka Patring” among left leaning groups and former communist rebel members as she is purportedly an official of the underground mass organization Artista at Manunulat ng Sambayanan (ARMAS) that has been seeking to violently overthrow the government.
