“Useless” Parlade asked to resign over “waste of public funds in red-tagging spree”
Manila, Philippines – “Mr. Parlade is a charlatan, useless soldier who doesn’t have any better thing to do in his office other than obsessing himself with his ridiculous red-tagging of activists, personalities, and entities opposed to his ideas. He should immediately quit his post, both from being a military commander and a spokesperson of the government-backed anti-communist taskforce. His position is nothing but a waste of public funds and state machineries,” This was according to the militant fishers’ group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (PAMALAKAYA) on Friday, lambasting Southern Luzon Command (SoLCom) chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., over his recent tirade against a multimedia reporter of INQUIRER.net who wrote a story of two Aetas who were charged of the controversial “anti-terror law”.
In a statement sent to media outfits, PAMALAKAYA is asking Lt. Gen. Parlade to resign as a chief of the SoLCom and spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
“We demand Mr. Parlade to tender his resignation anytime starting today, as he has no political and moral grounds to hold such position. The raging clamor against his malicious yet dangerous red-tagging spree deserves his military career, nothing less,” Pedro Gonzales, PAMALAKAYA Vice Chairman Emeritus said in a statement.
Gonzales, a retired fisherfolk leader from Southern Tagalog, said the Southern Luzon Commander has “unleashed” anti-insurgency campaign coupled with “impermissible human rights violations and attacks on democratic rights”.
Aside from his recent red-tagging of the said multimedia journalist, Mr. Parlade has earlier red-tagged 18 schools allegedly involved in “red October” plot assumption, entertainment personalities, activists and progressive organizations, and alternative media outlets.
The fishers’ group reiterated its call to “defund” the NTF-ELCAC and re-channel its P19.1 billion to health services and subsidy to pandemic-stricken poor Filipinos. ###
