Read in: Pilipino

Today Duterte appointed Antonio Parlade Jr. as deputy director-general of the National Security Council (NSC) after his retirement from the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Duterte once again granted AFP-PNP officers favors to consolidate their ranks and his own power. Parlade will surely continue his dastardly acts of spreading lies and sowing fear and terror in the country using his new position in the NSC.

The people will never forget Parlade’s criminal record. In the past years alone, he zealously forwarded the regime’s fascist schemes in Rizal, Southern Tagalog and the whole country.

The AFP-PNP’s brutality under Parlade’s leadership cannot be erased from the consciousness of the Rizaleños:

The extrajudicial killing of the couple Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay in Angono on November 2020 and massacre of Wesley Obmerga, Vilma Salabao, Carlito Zonio, and Jonathan and Niño Alberga in Baras on December 2020. The five civilians were tortured and their bodies were withheld for days, adding to their families’ misery. Topacio and Magpantay, meanwhile, were both hors de combat and retired CPP cadres.

Bloody Sunday or COPLAN ASVAL last March 2021 that killed 9 activists and arrested six others in Southern Tagalog. The slain victims Mark Lee Bacasno, Michael Dasigao, Abner and Edward Esto were from Rodriguez, Rizal, while Randy and Puroy Dela Cruz were from Tanay, Rizal.

The illegal arrest of 30 Dumagat and Remontados in Rizal last April 2021.

Parlade served as commanding general of the AFP Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) from January 2020 to July 2021. Under his term, Southern Tagalog provinces suffered relentless focused military operations (FMO) and retooled community support program operations (RCSPO). In Rizal, this resulted in the hamletting of barrios, harassment, violence, forced and fake surrenders and economic blockades which worsened hunger at the time of the pandemic.

The people will also not forget his controversial red-tagging and spreading of fake news as NTF-ELCAC spokesperson. He attacked activists and progressive organizations and even celebrities Angel Locsin and Liza Soberano, as well as organizers of community pantries.

As a rabid anti-communist, Parlade will certainly abuse his power to aggravate attacks on the people’s rights and lives in the name of the state’s counter-revolutionary war. He will utilize the wicked Anti-Terror Law to quash any form of resistance against the rotten regime. While terrorizing the people, Parlade and his fellow butcher generals will wallow in the nation’s coffers.

Rizaleños should expose and frustrate the regime’s fascist schemes in the province. Parlade and Duterte should be made to pay for their blood debt and the injustices they committed against the people.###