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Month: January 2021

NTF-ELCAC’s continued red-tagging makes AFP apology deceptive

Published by Ellen on January 31, 2021
NTF-ELCAC Spokesman Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. PNA photo

Alex Padilla, one of the 28 University of the Philippines students and alumni in the list of the Armed Forces of the Philippines “who became NPA (died or captured),” noted that the unsigned apology of the AFP Information Center that released the erroneous and egregious list is” hardly one.”

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, whose image as one of the decent few in the Duterte cabinet has been dented with that list, has relieved AFP’’s Deputy Director for Intelligence, Major General Alex Luna for what he called, “an unforgivable lapse.”

“It is a good first step but it may not be nearly enough,” said Padilla whose stint with the government includes having been Philhealth president and chief executive officer and chief negotiator in the peace process with the communist rebels.

Continue readingNTF-ELCAC’s continued red-tagging makes AFP apology deceptive

What’s the Duterte government up to with AFP’s reckless red-tagging?

Published by Ellen on January 25, 2021
Journalist Roel Landingin and lawyer Alex Padilla

Journalist Roel Landingin, one of the 28 named in the latest red-tagging offensive of the Duterte government, expressed concern over the credibility of information that the military has and uses.

“It’s concerning because it’s the type of info they use for military operations,” Landingin said in an online press conference on Saturday afternoon. “Imagine if nag-reunion tayo (we hold a reunion) and they misconstrued it as an NPA assembly and pwedeng maging subject ng military operation (it could be subjected to a military operation),” he added.

The presence of Landingin in the online presscon, along with five others in the list — lawyers Alex Padilla and Raffy Aquino, playwright Liza Magtoto, development worker Marie Lisa Dacanay, former journalist and government official Elmer Mercado — effectively debunked what was posted last Friday, Jan. 22, on the Facebook wall of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Information Exchange.

That post, which was taken down later but not after it had been widely shared, carried the heading: “Some of the UP students who became NPA (died or captured).”

Continue readingWhat’s the Duterte government up to with AFP’s reckless red-tagging?

Cha-Cha revival betrays Duterte’s desperation

Published by Ellen on January 17, 2021

Listening to President Duterte say that he is not interested in staying beyond June 30, 2022 reminds us of his denials about running for president in 2016. He didn’t even file his certificate of candidacy before the deadline set by the Commission on Elections, remember? He had to go through all the drama of substitution.

The proponents behind the renewed efforts for Charter Change in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are his minions. Would anyone believe that House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and Senators Ronald de la Rosa and Francis Tolentino would do anything as serious as changing the Constitution without their Master’s imprimatur?

Continue readingCha-Cha revival betrays Duterte’s desperation