Parlade para me

By Mauro Gia Samonte / The Manila Times

Like it or not, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., in a most effortless way, suddenly becomes the benchmark for whether one is pro- or anti-Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

In the controversies he has been thrown into by his detractors, one necessarily becomes pro- or anti-communist terrorist depending on whether he is pro- or anti-Parlade. His consistency to the point of obsession at exposing what he terms “duplicitous tactics” of the Sisonite communist terrorist insurgency has made him personify the government determination to end that insurgency once and for all.

I know of no other personality at the moment aside from President Duterte that has become the embodiment of the decades-old struggle of the Filipino nation to rid itself of the communist malady inflicted by the tandem of Jose Maria Sison and Benigno Aquino Jr. back in 1968.

Tarpaulins declaring the CPP-NPA persona non grata splashed on Manila footbridges, and the city mayor is quick to pin the blame on Parlade. Celebrities Liza Soberano, Catriona Gray and Angel Locsin cry “red-tagging,” bet your bottom peso it’s Parlade whodunit. A fair warning on the deceptive maneuvers of the CPP-NPA-NDF to drum up mass rage against the government through an innocent-looking humanitarian endeavor called “community pantry” can only come from who else but Parlade.

A huge bunch of senators threatens in unison to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) if its spokesman is not fired and you can bet your balls this time, that guy is Parlade.

How Parlade has come to be demonized for his rabid anti-CPP-NPA-NDF stance and yet under his watch as NTF-Elcac spokesman, how massively have the Sisonite communist terrorists been exposed so that they just must buy time to stay their imminent demise!

Time has not been too far off when only legal front organizations of the CPP-NPA-NDF were hitting General Parlade precisely for unmasking them for what they really are: communist fronts. Party-list groups (Bayan Muna, Gabriela, ACT, Courage, Anak Pawis, Kabataan) calling themselves Makabayan bloc were one with leftist mass organizations (LFS, CEGP, NUSP, Kabataang Makabayan, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, etc.) in calling for his dismissal as the anti-insurgency spokesman.

It was obvious that their intention was to stop the determined campaign of General Parlade to crush the insurgency both in the propaganda arena and in the battlefields. And in any case, this was understandable. They were the enemies the general was contending against; they would damn him till kingdom come.

Now, all of a sudden joining the obvious Reds in vehemently agitating for Parlade’s ouster were not just government officials but members of the top legislature, the Philippine Senate: Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto 3rd, Senate Committee on Defense and Security Chairman Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Senators Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Mary Grace Poe, Richard “Dick” Gordon, Franklin Drilon, Emmanuel Joel Villanueva and William Gatchalian.

Isn’t General Parlade doing a life-and-death struggle for the liberation of the country from communist terrorist aggression? And isn’t this struggle a primary strategy of the government which the general has been winning to the point of predicting the final demise of the CPP-NPA-NDF triad before the year ends. Why is it that among those fiercely agitating for his dismissal — which must only mean frustration of what is clearly taking shape now as the communist terrorists’ final defeat — are top government officials, including congressmen and senators?

Without him meaning it, General Parlade has, indeed, made of himself the paramount paradigm of what winning the war against the communist terrorists is all about.

Take Parlade and crush the CPP-NPA-NDF forever or reject him and plunge the nation into perdition.

I have made my choice: Parlade para me.

For whom are you?