CPP/News: Parlade: Portrait of a fascist as a troll

Propaganda news article posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Website (Oct 26, 2020): Parlade: Portrait of a fascist as a troll

NEWS STORIES
NOVEMBER 03, 2020

Before gaining notoriety as Angel Locsin’s obsessive red-tagger, Antonio Parlade was known as the anti-peace Army spokesperson dismissed in 2011. He went against official policy when he called for the suspension of the government’s ceasefire with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). This was after 19 soldiers were killed and 12 wounded in an encounter with the MILF in Basilan, in a lopsided battle that commanding officers blamed on “operational lapses.”

He also openly objected to the court-ordered release of the Morong 43, health workers who were red-tagged as members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and detained on trumped-up charges in 2010. He was strident in his contempt for the then ongoing peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

He was then assigned to a “support unit” in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) General Headquarters. During this time, he went to the US for further military studies. In his Facebook account, he boasts of attending Deakin University, the US Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, among others. In 2012, he published an anti-communist book in his name and fancied himself a “counterinsurgency expert.” The book currently ranks #10,563,490 in Amazon’s best-seller list, and falling.

He served as commander of the 203rd IBde under the 2nd ID which has operational jurisdiction over Mindoro in 2018. Before the year was out, he was promoted to AFP assistant deputy chief-of-staff for operations or J3. It was in this position that he first tested his trolling abilities by conflating the Red October myth and red-tagging student activists, as well as supporters and officials of the Liberal Party.

He identified a total of 18 schools in Metro Manila asrecruitment grounds for the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), including the non-existent City College of Caloocan. He baselessly accused ABS-CBN and the media, the Department of Justice and its courts, the European Union and the United Nations itself, as infiltrated by the CPP.

Parlade as troll

Parlade rose to become deputy chief to the AFP’s Civil-Military Operations or J7 in 2019. During this time, he put himself at the center of the Duterte regime’s vilification campaign against legal organizations and started red-tagging progressive lawmakers and institutions.

This earned him a ticket in the junket trip to Europe organized by Communications Sec. Martin Andanar. Before representatives of the European Union, he attempted in vain to paint organizations such as the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and Ibon Foundation as extensions of the New People’s Army. He boasted of having “truckloads” of evidence against the said groups and more. Europeans and their funding institutions roundly rebuffed him and Andanar’s coterie. Up to now, he has yet to present a single sheet of evidence to any court.

In true troll fashion, Parlade made sure his antics were covered by the media, scolding reporters who didn’t give him enough airtime. In November 2019, he gatecrashed a human rights forum where organizers compared his presence to a “serial rapist who barged in a meeting of victims and their kin.”

He repeats lie after lie about the CPP and the NPA devouring its own children to detract attention from state killings of prominent activists such as Randy Malayao and Randy Echanis. He has no qualms of justifying killings of human rights defenders such as Zara Alvarez claiming that they are “NPA members anyway.” He portrays the CPP, NPA and the entire national democratic movement as murderers and thugs out to destroy Filipino children and corrupt Filipino minds.

Parlade rose to prominence after two of Duterte’s main trolls, Mocha Uson and Lorraine Badoy, were caught in their lies and became objects of mockery. His brand of slander, childish name-calling and outrageous claims became fodder in social media, generating fake posts, videos and quotes.

His anti-communist zealot persona found an audience in AFP and Philippine National Police (PNP) official and sponsored accounts, as well as in state-funded troll farms. With the state machinery behind him, Parlade has accumulated more than 400 “friends” in Facebook.

In showing that no trick is too ridiculous or too vile, Parlade’s career was propelled to the higher rungs of the military bureaucracy. He became a “key person,” eventually graduating to “spokesperson,” of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. He claims to have the ear and gets his instruction to “trample on the Left” from Duterte himself.

On January 17, he replaced Gilbert Gapay as commander of the AFP’s Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) which has operational jurisdiction over the Bicol and Southern Tagalog regions. Gapay went on to become Philippine Army chief in December 2019, then AFP chief of staff in August 3. Parlade is openly currying favor to the most fascist military officials in the hopes of following Gapay as the next AFP chief of staff.

Parlade as terrorist

Unlike other Duterte trolls, Parlade has two infantry divisions, a fleet of naval forces and an Air Force Tactical Operations Wing to carry out state terrorism at his disposal. Under his command, military units under the SOLCOM go beyond red-tagging of activists, human rights defenders, media personalities, peasants and even members of the judiciary. Army units, assisted by police personnel, perpetrate human rights violations and crimes against the people with impunity.

Based on Ang Bayan’s monitor, there are at least 190 victims of human rights abuses in Bicol and 1,357 in Calabarzon from January to October 31. Most of these cases were perpetuated by SOLCOM units. These incidents range from extrajudicial killings (25 victims), unjust arrests and detentions (147), coercion (16), destruction of property (5), food and economic blockade (1200), illegal search and seizure (41), physical assault (13) to threat, harassment and intimidation (91), among others. Majority of the victims are farmworkers and peasants in the countryside, and workers in enclaves accused by the military as NPA members.

The violations include the unjust arrest of four regional leaders of progressive organizations in Bicol. The arrested activists, Jenelyn Nagrampa-Caballero, Rev. Dan San Andres, Nelsy Rodriguez of Bayan and Ramon Rescovilla of Condor-Piston are veterans of Gabriela, Karapatan, Bayan and Condor-Piston. These organizations are among Parlade’s favorites to demonize.

Last October 20, Camarines Sur Regional Trial Court Branch 56 Judge Jeaneth Gaminde San Joaquin narrowly escaped death when she, along with her aide, were shot at by motorcycle-riding gunmen. San Joaquin, who signed the warrant of arrest of Caballero, also ordered her release a few days later after determining that the case was weak. She did so at the risk of earning the ire of Parlade who brandishes his antagonism against judges who allow activists to exercise their legal rights.

In April, SOLCOM and PNP units presented 16 “NPA surrenderees” who turned out to be workers of the Coca Cola plant in Laguna who were red-tagged, threatened and brought to a military camp. They were recycled in another ceremony for “surrenderees” in July. Like other military officials, Parlade and his ilk profited from these fake and recycled surrenders.

Activists in Quezon hold Parlade “solely responsible” for the crackdown on residents of the province and the entire Southern Tagalog region. They cite the attempted murder of Karapatan Quezon Secretary-General Genelyn Dichoso on June 1. Later, Dichoso and seven others were illegally detained while on their way to conduct investigation on reports of child endangerment by the 85th IB. Red-tagged activists are “visited” by soldiers in their homes, while others are simply arrested and later presented as “NPA members.”

Others suffered worse fates. Three peasants were murdered by SOLCOM forces in Oriental Mindoro on January 31, only a few days after Parlade assumed command. Their bodies were riddled with bullets and left to rot. In Masbate and Albay, SOLCOM soldiers killed four barangay officials and a rice trader last September.

Ang Bayan also collated reports of 331 counterinsurgency operations initiated by units under Parlade’s command from January to October. These operations covered 163 barangays in 46 towns across the Bicol region and 128 barangays in 31 towns across Southern Tagalog.

These operations include the strafing incident involving 49th IB soldiers who indiscriminately fired their weapons near a school in Barangay Oma-oma in Ligao City on September 25, resulting in the forcible evacuation of teachers who were preparing for the opening of classes.

Parlade is also notorious for playing dirty in the field of warfare. He deliberately violated GRP President Duterte’s declaration of Covid-19 ceasefire from March 19 to April 30 earlier this year, and ordered his units to mount relentless counterinsurgency operations against the NPA. Combat and psychological operations were highest in Southern Tagalog (138 operations) and Bicol (94) during the said period. These operations include SOLCOM’s successive raids against NPA units in Barangay Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal, and in Mulanay and Gumaca Quezon from March 28 to April 1.

https://cpp.ph/2020/11/03/parlade-portrait-of-a-fascist-as-a-troll/