THE ‘MAKABAYAN BLOC’ in Congress and its allied organizations in the legal mass movement remained eerily silent over the call of Southern Luzon Command (Solcom) chief, Lt. General Antonio ‘Jun’ Parlade for them to explain why another “activist” who had protested being ‘red-tagged’ by the authorities was in the company of regional communist leaders killed in a firefight recently with the Philippine Marines.
Specifically, Palade addressed his query to Cristina Palabay, secretary of the slef-styled, “human rights group,” ‘Karapatan.’
Palabay is among the the most vociferous in condemning the government, the Armed Forces in particular, for “red-tagging” alleged ‘human rights’ defenders and ordinary “social activist” like Rona Jane ‘Ren’ Manalo.
Manalo was among those killed last September 3, 2020, during a clash between the Philippine Marines and the New People’s Army at Brooke’s Point, Palawan.
Before the incident, Manalo, an official of the women’s group, GABRIELA, had also bitterly complained of being ‘red-tagged’ by the military, thus putting her life in “danger.”
“So, Cristina Palabay, explain why an activist like REN @Lemon/Pandan (the communist alias of Manalo) was there in a violent incident in Palawan if she is not a terrorist?
“You have been complaining of being red-tagged, so are you not,” Parlade asked further.
Also killed in the incident reported last week by Pinoy Exposé, were Bonifacio ‘Salvador Luminoso’ Magramo, secretary of the Southern Tagalog Regional Military Area (SRMA-Unite/4E) of the Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC); his deputy secretary, Andrea ‘Ka Naya’ Rosal, eldest daughter of the late CPP spokesman, Gregorio ‘Ka Roger’ Rosal; and, Noel ‘Ka Celso’ Siasico, platoon leader of the NPA’s Bienvenido Vallever Command responsible for communist aggression in Palawan province.
At the ongoing budget hearings for next year’s national budget, congressmen from the Makabayan Bloc have joined hands in disrupting the proceedings in its effort to slash, if not totally cut, the proposed budget for government agencies dealing with the problem of communist insurgency.
The bloc claimed red-tagging has endangered the physical security and the civil and political rights of leaders and members of their organizations such as BAYAN, Bayan Muna, GABRIELA, Kabataan, COURAGE and KMU, among others.
The government, however, insisted if there is red-tagging, MAKABAYAN should blame CPP founder, Jose Maria Sison.
At a speech Sison delivered in Brussels, Belgium, on March 4, 1987, several months after his release from prison, Sison said the “three” revolutionary forces” seeking to overthrow the Philippine government are the CPP, NPA and what he called, the “legal democratic forces.”
Of these, the “biggest of all” Sison said, is the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), which, he further bragged, is composed of “more than 2 million members and 1,000 subordinate organizations.”
Sison also named Bayan’s “biggest component organizations” as the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), GABRIELA, League of Filipino Students (LFS), Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and, KADENA, another youth organization which has since then been disbanded.