Roque: Sacking Parlade as spox not up to Duterte

It would be up to the government's anti-insurgency task force - and not President Rodrigo Duterte - to decide whether or not to fire Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade, Jr. as its spokesman over his controversial statements against community pantries, the Palace said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. was responding to the call by Senator Panfilo Lacson to remove Parlade from his civilian post not only for branding pantry organizers as communists but also due to supposed reckless statements about the Anti-Terrorism Law.

“Hindi naman po nagma-micromanage ang ating Presidente. Bahala na po ang NTF-ELCAC kung susundin nila o hindi ang rekomendasyon ni Senator Lacson,” Roque said in a Palace briefing.

(The President is not a micro-manager. It is up to the NTF-ELCAC.)

NTF-ELCAC is the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict created by President Duterte.

Lacson and some senators already cited that Article 16, Section 5, Paragraph 4 of the Constitution bars an active member of the military to serve in a civilian post.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces Chief Lieutenant General Cirilito Sobejana, however, maintained that Parlade’s appointment was not illegal since the Armed Forces of the Philippines is part of the NTF-ELCAC created by President Duterte in 2018.

Aside from tagging humanitarians as communists, Parlade likened one of the community pantry organizers, Patrica Non, to Satan offering an apple to Eve. -MDM, GMA News