MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite has a simple response to the claim of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon that the members of his party-list have been acting against national security interests: Visit the Congress website.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Gaite even specified the website address of Congress — congress.gov.ph, saying in Filipino, “All the ‘acts’ that Bayan Muna members devote their time on are all there. ”
He then named some bills as examples — House Bill No. 3381, “An Act Strengthening Worker’s Right to Security of Tenure”; House Bill No. 224, or “An Act Providing Free Health Services to All Filipinos”; House Bill No 241, or “An Act Increasing the Monthly Pension of Senior Citizens.”
Gaite issued this response after Esperon denied the claim of Makabayan bloc legislators that they were under surveillance — but eventually admitting that they being monitored for acts that might be inimical to national security.
He urged the administration to stop wasting money checking on Bayan Muna legislators and other members of the Makabayan bloc.
“The Congress records are there to attest to our performance of our duties as lawmakers,” Gaite said, speaking partly in Filipino. “An internet browser and an internet connection are all you need to know all of that. You don’t need to waste people’s taxes for the deployment of intelligence agents.”
Gaite stressed that Makabayan bloc lawmakers were busy crafting bills geared towards improving the lives of the masses.
“Personally, I am an author to more than 400 House Bills addressing important issues ranging from bus drivers’ security of tenure to genuine land reform, from ensuring fair electricity bills to including comprehensive renal care in Philhealth packages,” he said.
“General Esperon could take time to sit down with his surveillance agents and read through all those bills, but I doubt they would find any one of those bills inimical to our national security,” he added.
Members of the Makabayan bloc and Esperon have been butting heads for sometime now, with the lawmakers pushing to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) — which Esperon is a part of.
Makabayan bloc lawmakers did not attend last Monday’s Senate hearing on the recent red-tagging incident involving Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., commander of Southern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Esperon tagged their absence as “suspicious.”
Parlade was accused of making a veiled threat when he said that actress Liza Soberano should not be red-tagged because she was not yet a member of the communist New People’s Army (NPA). He then advised her to distance herself from Gabriela Women’s Party-list, one of the groups belonging to the Makabayan bloc.
This was after Soberano appeared in an online forum on gender equality that was hosted by Gabriela.
Parlade also warned Soberano, along with Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray, about youth members of Gabriela who either ended up with the NPA — either caught or killed in battle.
Parlade added that actress Angel Locsin would not tell Soberano and Gray the truth about her sister Ella Colmenares, whom he accused of being an NPA rebel.
In the hearings, Parlade repeated his accusations against the Makabayan bloc and Colmenares, although he clarified that he never called Locsin an NPA member.
Makabayan legislators also previously clashed with Parlade and Presidential Communications Operations Office Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy — both members of the NTF-ELCAC.
—With reports from Miggy Dumlao, Intern
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