ARMY Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., one of the spokesmen for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), yesterday denied red-tagging organizers of community pantries and blamed the media for allegedly sensationalizing the issue.
“We don’t red tag them (community pantry organizers), we’re just warning people,” Parlade told the House committee on human rights. “They (media) sensationalized the issue. They used terms like profiling, they used terms like red-tagging, on and on.”
There have been persistent calls to remove Parlade and Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) undersecretary Lorraine Badoy as task force spokespersons following their remarks that linked some organizers of the community pantry in Quezon City to the CPP-NPA-NDFP.
The NTF-ELCAC has even added six new spokespersons to help promote the government’s anti-insurgency campaign, rejecting the call of senators to fire Parlade who called them “stupid” for seeking to defund the task force.
Parlade said the task force was told that some people who lined up for food were asked to sign a document and that there were also anti-government propaganda materials being distributed.
The NTC-ELCAC was accused of red-tagging after training its sights on Ana Patricia Non, whose idea to set up a community pantry on Maginhawa street in UP Village, Quezon City started a movement which is now being replicated across the country as the people continue to battle the economic hardships brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Non even had to close her pantry for a day last month after policemen asked for her cellphone number and her group affiliation. She reopened it the following day after a barrage of public support and criticisms against the government.
Parlade, AFP Southern Luzon Command chief, earlier claimed that at least four of the 40 community pantries currently operating in the country are being monitored for links with the communist movement, saying their activities are means to undermine the government.
He said this is the reason why the task force has been asking the people to be careful “and we made it very, very clear that Patricia Non’s purpose may be good but we should be watchful.”
Another NTF-ELCAC spokesman, Undersecretary Severo Catura of the presidential human rights committee secretariat, said the issue of red-tagging “exploded in the media and it was not the government who started it.”
Police Brigadier General Vincent Calanoga, acting chief of the PNP-Human Rights Affairs Office (HRAO), apologized to pantry organizers who felt harassed after being subjected to profiling by the police.
“Sa mga naapektuhan po, humihingi po ang PNP HRAO ng paumanhin sa mga taong naapektuhan kung anuman po ‘yung maibalita o naipost na hindi po nila nagustuhan (The PNP HRAO apologizes to those who were affected by whatever was reported or posted that they didn’t like),” he said.
Calanoga said the PNP leadership under its new chief, Gen. Guillermo Eleazar has taken steps to avoid a repeat of such incidents, with Eleazar particularly ordering the police force to help and support the pantries.
Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) and members of the Mabakabayan bloc yesterday filed House Resolution No. 1763 commending Non and other community pantry organizers, saying they “deserve commendation and recognition for their trailblazing and noble efforts to ease the hunger and suffering of Filipinos amid the COVID-19.”
Amid the red tagging, harassment, and threats, it said Non and the other organizers of community pantries “did not quiver and persist to help and serve the poor Filipinos.”
Cavite Rep. Jesus Crispin Remulla however said publicizing community pantries defeats the purpose of the “Bayanihan” because “it spawns an agenda that is different from its true spirit of.”
“If there’s a political agenda behind helping the people, when there’s an effort to play the hero, to tell the world that we’re doing good, it’s like not doing good at all,” he told the same hearing.
Remulla said critics should stop blaming the government but Brosas took exception to his statements, saying it’s an insult to pantry organizers who want to inform the people where they can get help during their tough times.
“It’s an insult to the organizers, because all they want to do is help and inform the people know where they should go,” she said.