President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted the resignation of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. as one of the spokespersons of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Malacanang said Thursday.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the controversial spokesperson of the government’s anti-insurgency task force submitted his resignation as mouthpiece of NTF-ELCAC “a month ago” to ease pressure on the task force’s leaders who are being questioned by lawmakers.
“General Parlade’s resignation has been accepted. That’s what I was able to confirm from Secretary Lorenzana,” Roque said.
Parlade is also set to retire from the military on July 26 and will be replaced by Maj. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro as the new commander of the Southern Luzon Command (Solcom).
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Parlade resigned from the task force more than two weeks ago and said he didn’t know if the general would be rehired after his retirement by the NTF-ELCAC, which is supposed to be led by civilian officials.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Thursday disclosed that Parlade made him aware of his resignation more than a month ago when the general paid him a courtesy visit in his Senate office.
“I thanked and commended him even as that resignation was still subject to the approval of higher authorities,” said Parlade.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan considered the resignation of Parlade a “welcome development.”
But even Parlade’s replacement is under fire, as Deputy Speaker Rufus Rodriguez urged President Duterte to recall the appointment of Bacarro as new commander of Solcom.
“Mr. Bacarro is one of those responsible for the death by hazing of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) cadet Darwin Dormitorio on Sept. 18, 2019. Darwin was a constituent of mine in Cagayan de Oro,” Rodriguez, who represents the city in Congress, said.
He said the Baguio City police, which investigated the case, had filed criminal charges against Bacarro and then-PMA superintendent Lt. Gen. Ronnie Evangelista.
However, the city prosecutor’s office dismissed the charges against them and filed a complaint only against several of their PMA underlings, Rodriguez said.
Parlade received criticism from various organizations and lawmakers for red-tagging or linking groups, schools, and personalities, including actresses Liza Soberano and Angel Locsin, to communist rebels.
He and fellow NTF spokesperson Presidential Communications Operations Office undersecretary Lorraine Badoy were also directed to stop making comments about community pantries.
Militant fishers’ group Pamalakaya had asked Parlade to resign as Solcom chief and Task Force spokesman, saying his position is nothing but a waste of public funds and state machineries.
Pamalakaya vice chairman emeritus Pedro Gonzales said Parlade has no political and moral grounds to hold such position.
“The raging clamor against his malicious yet dangerous red-tagging spree deserves his military career, nothing less,” he said.
The group said Parlade “is a charlatan, a useless soldier who doesn’t have any better thing to do in his office other than obsessing himself with his ridiculous red-tagging of activists, personalities, and entities opposed to his ideas.”
Parlade and other military and police officials claimed they are only protecting the youth from the Left.