Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. of the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Nancy Binay on Sunday expressed her willingness to support the resolution seeking to censure National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) spokesperson Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr.
This comes after Senator Franklin Drilon said he will be filing a resolution against Parlade for his “disrespectful” statements against senators.
“May basehan naman ang pag-file ni Senate Minority Floor Leader ng censure against General Parlade dahil alam naman natin ang mga binitawan niyang statements laban sa Senado,” said Binay in an interview over dzRH.
(The Senate Minority Floor Leader has a basis for filing the censure against General Parlade because of the statements he made against the Senate.)
“At the end of the day, we need to protect the institution,” she added.
Parlade made the remarks against the Senate after a number of senators pushed to defund NTF-ELCAC amid the red-tagging of the organizers of community pantries.
Parlade argued that the senators had approved the budget. “I’ll tell you, sila ang stupid kung ito ay binabawi nila (they’re the ones stupid if they retract this),” said Parlade on a television interview.
Binay, however, explained that while it is the Senate’s job to approve budgets, it is also their job to review them and make changes if needed.
She added that the Senate was already critical of the allocated budget for NTF-Elcac during the budget deliberations last year.
“Pero at the end of the day naging innovative sila [NTF-Elcac] at gusto nila sumubok at nakita ng Senado na bakit hindi natin pagbigyan at baka makatulong sa pagsugpo natin sa insurgency problem natin,” Binay said.
(But at the end of the day they [NTF-Elcac became innovative, they wanted to try to end the insurgency problem and the Senate saw that and gave them a chance.)
“Hindi naman natin inexpect na one year after ng lockdown ay malalagay tayo sa mas malalang sitwasyon at kinakailangan ng mas malaking pondo,” she added.
(We didn’t expect that we would be in a worse situation one year after the lockdown and that we’ll be needing more funds.)
“Kumbaga ngayon naghahanap tayo sa budget kung saan tayo puwede humugot ng pera para madagdagan yung laban natin sa COVID at nakita nga natin na since malaki ang nakalaan dito [NTF-Elcac] baka puwedeng magamit muna sa paglaban natin sa COVID,” explained Binay.
(Like right now, we are looking for where we can draw money to boost our fight against COVID and we see that a lot had been allocated here [NTF-Elcac], maybe we can use this for the meantime for our fight against COVID.)
Binay then clarified that the Senate has already recommended removing Parlade from his position even before he started his tirades against community pantries and the Senate.
She reminded that the Senate had already challenged his designation as spokesperson of the NTF-Elcac while remaining an Armed Forces of the Philippines general which goes against the Constitution.
Article 16, Section 5 of the 1987 Constitution states that “No member of the armed forces in the active service shall, at any time, be appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the government, including government-owned or controlled corporations or any of their subsidiaries.”
Several senators have called on to defund NTF-Elcac on Thursday, April 22.
Senators said the P19.5 billion budget the NTF-Elcac has, should instead be realigned to aid pandemic-hit Filipinos.
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