Año: Giving Parlade gag order 'unfair'

Despite his controversial statements linking personalities to communist rebels, Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr. should not be given a gag order, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año opined on Wednesday.

In a television interview, Año described Parlade, head of the military's Southern Luzon Command (Solcom), as "one of the best" military officers and advised him to back his statements with evidence.

"General Parlade is one of the best officers in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. I will just caution him to go to factual details so it would stand, do not make generalization [that] he cannot present the evidence in the bar of opinion or in the court. Kailangan talaga diyan may pinanghahawakan kang ebidensya," said Año, a former AFP chief of staff, on ANC.

"Giving a gag order to General Parlade is not fair also because he's a very effective communicator and very good AFP officer," he added.

Aside from being SolCom commander, Parlade is also the spokesman of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). He came under fire last week after he warned actress Liza Soberano against keeping ties with Gabriela Women's Party, which the military claims is a front organization of communist rebels.

Parlade has denied that he was "red-tagging" the actress, as accused by his critics. He, however, noted that Soberano, who participated in a webinar organized by Gabriela, is being "exploited" by the group.

Meanwhile, Año said he believes Soberano, as well as Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray and actress Angel Locsin, are not linked to communist groups.

"They must be respected and protected. I do not believe that they are in any way part of the New People’s Army of the Communist Party of the Philippines,” he said.

According to Año, military officers could not be stopped from expressing their concerns against the communist insurgency as they have the task to eradicate communist rebels before President Rodrigo Duterte's term ends in 2022.

He also said he believes that military men voicing their sentiments is part of the "healthy debate in the democratic space."

"You cannot really avoid these healthy debates in the public. Nakita ko 'yung mga expressions at mga manifestations ng ating mga lawyers, this is a part of a healthy debate in the democratic space," he said.

"I think we cannot also prevent the military from expressing their concern and expressing what they think because it is also the order of the President to defeat the communist insurgency before the end of his term," he added. —KBK, GMA News