SC Justice Carandang to quiz Esperon on ‘red-tagging’ of community pantry organizers

Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang on Tuesday vowed to inquire with National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. about the “red-tagging” of community pantry organizers as the high tribunal tackled petitions against the anti-terror law.

Carandang made the statement after Assistant Solicitor General Raymund Rigodon said during the oral arguments that he had no personal knowledge regarding the basis of some government officials to associate the organizers with the communist movement.

Rigodon instead suggested for Esperon to answer Carandang’s queries.

“We will toss the questions to him later on. I have some questions for General Esperon,” Carandang said.

The SC will continue the interpellation of government representatives on May 4.

Esperon is the vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), whose two spokespersons Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr. and Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy made controversial remarks against some people behind community pantries.

The Cabinet official has since asked Parlade and Badoy to refrain from making statements about the matter.

Last week, critics slammed police officers over the profiling of community pantry organizers. The alleged red-tagging also led to the temporary closure of community pantries on Maginhawa Street in Quezon City and Cagayan de Oro City.

Some senators have called for the realignment of the NTF-ELCAC's P19-billion allocation under the 2021 national budget, which was intended for the development of communities recently cleared of communist insurgency, following incidents of alleged red-tagging of community pantry owners.

Malacañang rejected the proposal. -MDM, GMA News