National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. confirmed that members of the Makabayan Bloc of the House of Representatives are being monitored due to alleged association with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
According to Sec. Esperon, this move is government’s response to the actions of several progressive lawmakers which are considered as threat to national security.
However, he clarified that they are not conducting a technical surveillance of the solons.
“Pwede kaming mag-surveillance ng manual, ‘yung tao namin, dahil part ‘yung ng monitoring. Pero kung technical surveillance, ‘yun po ay may pahintulot dapat ng Regional Trial Court (we can [conduct] manual surveillance, our staff, because that is part of monitoring. But if it is technical surveillance, there should be permission from the Regional Trial Court).”
Esperon also stated that the bloc’s absence in the Senate investigation Tuesday has strengthened their presumption.
Southern Luzon Command Chief Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade initially revealed that some members of the Makabayan Bloc particularly Bayan Muna, Gabriela, and Kabataan are under surveillance.
Bayan Muna Chairman Neri Colmenares countered “iyan ang problema ng mga (that is the problem with) illegal surveillance which I believe is without court order as required by their Anti-Terror Law. Madaling i-retoke. Ipakita niya kung saang public place ako sa QC nandoon (Easy to manipulate. He should show the public place in QC I’m in) if he wants to stand by his claims.”
Other accused lawmakers decried that the Senate investigation was used to lay out the accusations of the military against them.
According to Kabataan Partylist Rep. Sarah Elago, “we are disappointed and enraged with what transpired in the Senate hearing. For six long hours, it was only used as a platform of high ranking military men and the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) to spread false information and lies.”
House Deputy Minority Leader Representative Carlos Zarate observed that “it appears now that those responsible and enablers of this witch hunt do not want to end red-tagging and terrorist-tagging but essentially just to find ways on how the NTF-ELCAC and other government offices can get away with it without presenting any type of credible evidences.”
Gabriela Representative Arlene Brosas pointed out that a senate hearing is “not a proper venue to ferret out the truth behind these preposterous allegations against duly elected party lists.”
“They should go to court instead of repeatedly resorting to the court of public opinion.” She added.
Esperon defended that the hearing is the “democratic space” for all parties to discuss.
Report from Bea Bernardo
