DILG wants employees linked to progressive group probed; NTF-ELCAC backs move

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has ordered its regional directors to investigate their employees who are suspected members of a progressive group.

In a March 10 directive, DILG Assistant Secretary Alexander Macario asked for the names of the employees who are members of the Confederation for Unity Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE), which he tagged as a front organization of a “communist-terrorist group.”

On Thursday, the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program Amnesty Program (EAP) Cluster of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) supported the move.

“The directive from… Macario is intended to ensure that our public servants are not exploited or used to undermine the government and the stability of the Republic,” cluster head Undersecretary Reynaldo Mapagu said in a statement.

On Monday, DILG officer-in-charge Undersecretary Bernardo Florece Jr. said Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison had linked COURAGE to his group.

“Records will show that it was CPP founder Jose Maria Sison himself who 'red-tagged' or identified the organizations that they have infiltrated and now control in a video which was shown in the Senate,” he said in a statement.

While the DILG recognizes the right of the employees to join associations, Florece reminded that this right is not absolute.

“It is but the legal and moral obligation of this Department to investigate if there are employees within our ranks seeking shelter in the very system they wish to destroy,” he said.

“It is our sworn obligation to determine if the organization has been infiltrated and if our employees are being recruited and exploited,” he added.

On Tuesday, COURAGE denounced the directive from the DILG, saying it violates the rights of employees to self-organization and privacy. -MDM, GMA News