Makabayan bloc solons, Colmenares skip Senate 'red-tagging' probe

Members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives on Tuesday skipped a Senate committee's hearing on the alleged red-tagging being perpetrated by the military.

Senate Committee on National Defense chairperson Panfilo Lacson said the secretariat has sent an invitation through the Office of House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco last Friday.

"The letter was coursed through the Speaker of the House, considering that the Committee cannot issue the said invitation directly to individual party-list representatives in view of the inter-parliamentary courtesy existing between the two chambers," Lacson said in his opening message.

Lacson said militant groups such as Bayan Muna, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Kabataan, Gabriela "did not confirm their attendance for still unknown reasons" despite receiving the invitation.

The Makabayan bloc was instead represented by Atty. Maneeka Sarza as its legal counsel during the hearing. She said the congressmen are currently on their respective relief missions for the victims of Super Typhoon Rolly.

"Ipinaaabot po na hindi ngayon sa date na ito makaka-attend ang ating mga congressmen and congresswomen. They are on separate relief missions," Sarza said.

Further, Bayan Muna chairperson Neri Colmenares also requested that another hearing be held without the presence of the security sector, particularly Southern Luzon Command chief Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr., according to Lacson.

"The chair may have to discuss this with the members of the committee," he said.

Parlade recently revealed that Colmenares and members of the Makabayan bloc in the House or Representatives are under surveillance for being "card-bearing" members of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

In response, the Makabayan bloc condemned Parlade's alleged red-tagging and surmised that it was the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict's (NTF-ELCAC) way of "hitting back" at them for exposing the P19.1-billion "generals' pork" under the task force's budget for 2021.

Parlade is NTF-ELCAC's spokesperson.

Among those who attended the hearing were Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, Armed Forces chief General Gilbert Gapay, Parlade, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, and Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy.

The Senate inquiry on alleged red-tagging has the end in view of "crafting proper guidelines in order to prevent any misunderstanding between the public and our law enforcers and ultimately, to ensure the protection of the constitutional rights of the people in general," said Lacson, a former national police chief. —KBK, GMA News