ILOILO City – Fifteen senators on Tuesday filed Resolution No. 709 which aims to censure Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., for his disrespectful, derogatory, and demeaning statements against the members of the Senate after they called to defund the P19 billion budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
The resolution was authored by Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. It was co-authored by Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri and Senators Nancy Binay, Pia Cayetano, Grace Poe, Sherwin Gatchalian, Leila de Lima, Richard Gordon, Risa Hontiveros, Panfilo Lacson, Francis Pangilinan, Aquilino Pimentel IV, and Joel Villanueva.
“Instead of engaging in a constructive debate, Lt. Gen. Parlade has chosen to demean and disparage the Senators, through statements that display his limited grasp of Congress’ role in the budget process and show his lack of respect not just for the Senators as duly-elected representatives of the people but also for the Senate as an institution,” the senators stressed.
They also defended the rise of the community pantries in the country, where organizers were subjected to red-tagging by the country’s anti-insurgency task force.
The 15 senators stressed that “progressive thinking is not communism.”
“If Parlade’s pronouncements and profiling of community pantry organizers were done pursuant to NTF-ELCAC’s policy direction, then the agency has clearly departed from its mandate and members of the Senate have basis to realign its funds to more worthy causes that would make better use of taxpayers’ money, such as providing much-needed aid to people suffering from the effects of the pandemic,” they said.
Previously, Parlade in a response to the senator’s call to defund the NTF-ELAC was quoted saying, “I’ll tell you, sila ang stupid kung ito ay binabawi nila. Pinirmahan nila ‘yung batas na ‘yan para maging serbisyo, ipagpatuloy ang programa ng gobyerno. Ngayon sasabihin nila na ide-defund nila ‘yung NTF-ELCAC.”
Resolution No. 709 also questions the continued stay of Parlade as spokesperson of the NTF-ELCAC, which violates the Constitution./PN
