IN what appears to be an effort to subdue an angry mob, Malacañang took a position seen to prevent things from getting out of control – by supporting a gag order directing two top government personalities from issuing any remark about the proliferating community pantries across the country.
In a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte supports National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon’s decision to issue a gag order on Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade and Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy over their comments tagging organizers of humanitarian efforts as communist rebels.
Parlade was berated over nasty remarks on Maginhawa community pantry organizer Ana Patricia Non, who has been dragged as a communist. As if the red-tagging wasn’t enough, Parlade went on to depict Non to Satan offering Eve an apple.
Likewise told to shut up is Badoy who insisted that Non may not be able to properly account for the whopping one billion worth of donations the Maginhawa community pantry had received.
“Opo, we support General Esperon’s decision. Alam naman natin ang polisiya natin, wine-welcome natin ang bayanihan ng community pantries. Hinihingi natin sa lahat ng opisyales: maging mas maingat, malalim sa kanilang sinasabi. Kailangan mas malawak pananaw nila,” Roque said, referring to Parlade and Badoy.
Nevertheless, Roque maintained that there was no need to defund the government’s anti-insurgency task force, which received a P19 billion allocation under the 2021 national budget.
Nearly P16.5 billion of this P19 billion budget was for the Barangay Development Fund of supposed communist-free barangays.
“The program’s rationale is different from those spokespersons of the task force,” Roque said.
Roque also reminded organizers of community pantries that they needed to coordinate efforts with barangay officials and other local executives to ensure that minimum public health standards to prevent COVID-19 transmissions were observed.