Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus on Friday slammed the Armed Forces of the Philippines’s “overstretched Red October charade” while asserting the release of women’s rights defender Hedda Calderon.
“We in Gabriela Women’s Party strongly demand the immediate release of Hedda Calderon, who is our regular consultant at the House of Representatives, following the court’s issuance of a release order and with the flimsy, fabricated charges flunking the test of reason and truth,” she said.
She said it was clear the AFP was just “grasping at straws” over accusation that Calderon was part of the Red October plot to overthrow President Rodrigo Duterte.
“It is ridiculous for the AFP to claim that the arrest of Calderon and four others broke a crucial chain in the concocted ouster tale when they already claimed days before the arrest that such imaginary plot already fizzled out,” she added.
She alleged the military and the police were actually the plotters of the Red October plan when they planted grenades and firearms on Calderon and others to suit their “preposterous storyline.”
“The macho-fascists should stop overstretching this Red October charade to justify the illegal arrest of Calderon and their abuse of power against legal activists,” De Jesus noted.
National Democratic Front of the Philippine consultant Adelberto Silva, 70, along with Calderon, 63, Ediecel Legaspi, 60, Ireneo Atadeo, 55, and their driver Julio Lusana, 53, were arrested on Oct. 15 and brought to the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group headquarters in Camp Crame in Quezon City.
“No amount of terrorist tagging can besmirch the record of Calderon in selflessly defending the rights and welfare of women and the people. She is a long-time women’s rights activist who has fiercely stood against misogyny and fascism, and remains a staunch supporter of the fight for justice by Filipino comfort women who were victimized by Japanese forces during the Second World War,” De Jesus said.
Gabriela vowed to continue the fight for the dismissal of the criminal raps against Calderon and other human rights defenders.