Senate of the Philippines. (File photo by EDWIN BACASMAS / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — More senators on Monday backed a resolution that aims to censure Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. for his derogatory remarks against those pushing to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac).
The yet-to-be-filed resolution in the Senate was initiated by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon following Parlade’s “stupid” remark against senators.
Aside from Drilon, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Senators Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, and Grace Poe confirmed, in separate messages, signing the resolution.
Sotto said Parlade, spokesman of NTF-Elcac, should be censured, “if they will not remove him.”
READ: Parlade: Senators ‘stupid’ if they defund task force
In September last year, the Senate already recommended Parlade’s immediate relief after investigating the alleged red-tagging by some military officials.
“The sense of my colleagues is that the personalities involved were attacking the Senate,” Sotto said in another message to reporters.
Drilon said he would push through with the filing of the resolution despite National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon’s gag order to Parade and another task force spokesperson, Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy.
Esperon is vice-chairperson of the anti-insurgency task force.
“It’s not a matter of appeasing the Senate, it’s a matter of upholding the dignity of the Senate,” Drilon pointed out in an interview with reporters.
“I will proceed with the filing of this resolution because this is not something that we can’t let go of once these gag orders are issued.”
Drilon reiterated that calling senators stupid is “very disrespectful, derogatory and demeaning.”
“We don’t deserve such disrespectful language, calling us stupid,” he stressed.
Drilon hopes that the resolution would send a “very strong message” that Parlade’s actions were not “consistent with the principle of civilian supremacy in our system of government.”