by Priam Nepomuceno/PNA
The efforts of communist rebels to infiltrate government offices are part of their scheme to weaken these institutions, a ranking military official said Thursday.
Brig. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) deputy chief-of-staff for civil-military operations, said once they are able to enter, rebels will do everything to discredit these institutions.
He added that special efforts are also made to render useless and irrelevant the military and police, who are tasked to secure the country.
“(Gusto) talagang i-weaken ‘yung (They really want to weaken) institution. That’s by design. Andun sa strategy ng (It is in the strategy of the) CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines). I-weaken ang (To weaken the) AFP, i-weaken ang Philippine National Police. Even (our) electoral process. ‘Yung sinasabotahe nila (They are sabotaging these),” Parlade said in a chance interview.
Parlade noted that the communist rebels are using human rights advocacy as one of the agendas in the so-called Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic (CASER) to discredit the AFP and PNP.
“One of the agendas in CASER is human rights advocacy. Okay yan, walang problema dyan (That is okay. There is no problem with that). But to the point na halos i-intimidate na nila ung sundalo na hindi makagalaw kasi matatakot makasuhan nghuman rights violation, parang negative ang naging effect sa mga sundalo (they almost intimidated the soldiers who cannot even move because they fear that they might be charged with human rights violation, it has a negative impact on our troops),” he said.
“Lalo na ‘yung Karapatan (Specifically Karapatan, referring to the human rights group). Lumakas ‘yung Karapatan (Karapatan really became strong). For this, lalo (nilang) tinatakot ‘yung mga AFP para hindi sila masyadong makapag-function properly. Madami pa iyan. Grabe ‘yung effort niyan na mawala ‘yung budget sa CAFGU (Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit), mabawasan ‘yung CAFGU (They are intimidating the AFP so that we cannot function properly. There are more. Their efforts to slash or remove budget for CAFGU are really grave),” he added.
CAFGUs act as the AFP’s force-multipliers in rural areas.
The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (NPA) is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
