Senate to review red-tagging issue amid ‘faulty’ intel info

SENATE probers will take a second look at initial findings on the red-tagging issue following indications of fumbling by military intelligence, which has been called out for including several personalities and schools among those allegedly in league with communist rebels.

In an interview with CNN PHL, Senator Panfilo Lacson recalled at least 18 schools were recently redtagged with “no concrete evidence.”

Lacson said revisiting the initial findings from the red-tagging hearings is now necessary given the recent exchanges between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the persons and schools that it tagged as a “red haven” in the aftermath of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana’s abrogation of the 30-year-old Up-department of National Defense (DND) agreement keeping out soldiers and policemen from the UP campus without prior permission from university authorities.

The senator noted that because of the furor triggered by the unvalidated list revealed by Lorenzana coming from the AFP, there is a danger “they based their decision to abrogate on what appears now to be false information.”

“It would be prudent now for Secretary Lorenzana to at least suspend...the termination of the UPDND accord; go back to the drawing board; hold dialogues and thresh out the differences between the AFP and the UP, PUP...,” Lacson said.

Lacson lamented that the draft committee report is “almost finished” to include military findings to back up red-tagging, but with the new revelations of apparent intelligence fumbling, there is a need to revisit the report due to “what now appears to be false information” being used as basis for abrogating the UP-DND agreement.”to pursue it further, the senator added, “We will ask them to submit a validated report, including student casualties in AFP clashes.”

‘Insult’

ANOTHER school tagged by a senior military official as a recruitment ground for communist has denied the allegations, calling it as an “insult” and a “serious disservice” to its staff.

“The PLM administration is not aware of any recruitment by the CPPNPA on campus nor had it been previously advised by the authorities of such activities,” said Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila President Emmanuel A. Leyco in a news statement sent to the Businessmirror.

“This allegation is a serious disservice to the men and women of the PLM and comes at a very bad time when its faculty, students and staff are struggling with the challenges of online education. Such distraction in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic is indeed reprehensible,” he added.

The statement added to the voices from other schools and universities, which have objected to the “redtagging” by Armed Forces Southern Luzon Command commander Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, who is also one of the voices behind the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

The PLM was among the 18 schools and universities that Parlade earlier claimed was where the New People’s Army recruits for its members. The list was topped by the University of the Philippines where an agreement with the DND that bars the conduct of operations by state forces within UP without prior notice was recently abrogated.

Four universities—ateneo, Dela Salle, Far Eastern University and University of Sto. Tomas—have issued a joint statement decrying Parlade’s claim that they are recruitment grounds for rebels. Leyco noted that this was not the first time that PLM has been identified as one of the schools where the alleged recruitment of the NPA is taking place.

“The Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila was once again the subject of unscrupulous allegations made by a high official of the military, particularly of the NTF-ELCAC. According to reports circulating in the mass media, the military has identified the PLM as a recruitment haven for the Communist Party of the Philippinesnew People’s Army,” Leyco said.

“This is the second time the same official attempted to put the PLM in a bad light by red-tagging,” he added.

The university president said the latest attempt to “red-tag” PLM is an insult to its “distinguished faculty, hardworking staff and dedicated students who are being prepared to join the country’s future leaders in business, government and civil society.”

Leyco said that as an institute of learning, the PLM will continue to uphold the rights of its faculty and students to pursue knowledge with the “full protection of their inalienable rights to academic freedom.”

He said the staff and students of the school are known for their passion for public service, noting among the recent graduates of the university are medical doctors who joined the frontlines of the city of Manila’s battle against Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Benedict Arevalo, the military’s deputy chief of staff for civil-military operations, said he would apologize in behalf of the military over the“erroneous” inclusion of some individuals in the list of reported rebels—either killed or are still active.

“I’ll be the one to apologize because it was me who released it,” Arevalo said on Monday.

It was Arevalo’s office that released the list, which included a number of well-known individuals and lawyers, including former Health Undersecretary and later Philhealth chief Alex Padilla.