Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas. (Photo from her Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — The Gabriela Women’s party list on Sunday claimed the police was conducting community profiling in barangays with a high number of votes for Makabayan bloc groups in the May polls.
Gabriela party list Rep. Arlene Brosas accused Metro Manila’s Northern Police District of issuing a memorandum ordering the community profiling in barangays within its area of responsibility.
Brosas claimed that the memorandum was directed at barangays “with high votes for the Makabayan bloc” party list groups.
The Gabriela lawmaker cited a June 9 letter, supposedly by a Navotas City police intelligence officer, addressed to a barangay in the locality.
The letter referred to a “memorandum from higher headquarters to conduct community profiling on the identified barangays who (sic) got high votes of Kabataan, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, ACT Teachers, and Gabriela party list during the recent election.” The Makabayan groups were identified in the letter by the acronym “Kabag.”
It requested from the barangay a list of “sectoral mass organizations, leaders and members, and the issues and concerns raised by the said groups,” in the area.
According to Brosas, “This latest order from the [Philippine National Police] is a brazen but desperate effort to single out communities, which supported Makabayan bloc, in a bid to further stifle dissent especially as prices are spiraling out of control and with a food crisis looming in the horizon.”
She criticized the police’s community profiling as a waste of taxpayer’s money, claiming that its only aim was to sow fear in the communities and discourage the airing of legitimate concerns.
Brosas further lamented the continuing display of black propaganda materials against party lists in the Makabayan bloc, saying, “sack posters which are dangerously tagging us as communists and terrorists certainly put our lives and safety on the line.”
She said, “We will ask the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an investigation on this latest dirty offensive.”
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