Palace backs gag order on Parlade, Badoy

The Palace fully supported National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon's gag order on two officials of the government’s anti-insurgency task force over their comments tagging organizers of humanitarian efforts as communist rebels, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Monday.

Roque was referring to Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr. and Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy of the National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict.

Aside from tagging humanitarians as communists, Parlade likened Maginhawa Community Pantry organizer Ana Patricia Non to Satan offering Eve an apple.

Badoy, for her part, claimed that Non would not be able to properly account for the P1 billion worth of donations the Maginhawa community pantry had received.

“Opo, [we support General Esperon’s decision]. Alam naman natin ang polisiya natin, wine-welcome natin ang bayanihan ng community pantries. Hinihingi natin sa lahat ng opisyales: maging mas maingat, malalim sa kanilang sinasabi,” said Roque.

(We support the gag order. Our policy is clear, we welcome the bayanihan effort of community pantries. We call on all government officials to be more careful and deeply reflect on their words.)

“Kailangan mas malawak pananaw nila,” he added.

(They should have a deeper understanding.)

Nevertheless, Roque maintained that there was no need to defund the government’s anti-insurgency task force, which received a P19 billion allocation under the 2021 national budget.

Nearly P16.5 billion of this P19 billion budget was for the Barangay Development Fund of supposed communist-free barangays.

“The program’s rationale is different from those spokespersons of the task force,” Roque said.

Roque also reminded organizers of community pantries that they needed to coordinate efforts with barangay officials and other local executives to ensure that minimum public health standards to prevent COVID-19 transmissions were observed. — DVM, GMA News