MANILA, Philippines—Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo said the appointment of Norberto Gonzales as acting defense secretary showed that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would step up her "murderous policy” against her militant critics.

"Gonzales is linked with the policy, under Oplan Bantay Laya, of lumping legal mass organizations with the CPP-NPA and marking their leaders and members for extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances,” said Ocampo in a text message. "As defense chief, he (Gonzales) will be given more leeway to continue this murderous policy.”

Ocampo said that Gonzales and his partner at the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas, Fr. Romeo Intengan, subjected military units to the political-ideological orientation of his party but later retreated after being exposed. "Will he try this again as defense secretary?”

Gonzales, as head of the Inter-Agency Legal Action Group, filed rebellion charges against Ocampo and the rest of the "Batasan 6” in 2006 which the Supreme Court threw out as being spurious.

Anakpawis Representatives Joel Maglunsod and Rafael Mariano condemned the appointment of the national security adviser to the defense department.

Maglunsod said the public should be ready for "hell on earth” with human rights violations expected to get worse under Gonzales’ watch.

“Without any pretense, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo shamelessly placed Gonzales, her triggerman, in a better position to shoot at her critics and political foes,” Maglunsod said.

Mariano said Gonzales’ "Red baiting and anti-communist” stance would be the norm in the AFP as he moves to "mobilize the military for his own self-serving political ambition.”