Parlade denies labeling Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin and Catriona Gray red

MANILA – A military official on Tuesday denied red-labeling 3 celebrities with whom he had repeatedly argued online for their alleged involvement in or support of organizations linked to communism.

At a hearing on the controversial celebrity red label, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Defense and National Security, Senator Panfilo Lacson, asked Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. if he had linked Miss Universe 2018 Catriona Gray and the Kapamilya actresses. Liza Soberano and Angel. Locsin with the communist movement.

“No, your honor. I did not,” said Parlade, spokesman for the Government’s National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

The question arose when the Senate panel began investigating how various celebrities were being linked to the communist insurgency after speaking out about women’s empowerment and the rights of Filipinos on different platforms and forums.

Parlade previously accused Ella Colmenares, Locsin’s sister, of being “part of the underground” and claimed that she “operated in Quezon, especially on Polillo Island.”

In a social media post last month, the military officer also called on Soberano and Gray to cut ties with Gabriela, a group that promotes women’s rights in the Philippines, saying the organization is one of the many fronts of the communist movement.

In the same post, Parlade also warned Soberano that she could end up dead as another woman who allegedly joined the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Senator Risa Hontiveros criticized Parlade’s comments against female celebrities, saying that women should not be the target of “veiled threats.”

“Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin and Catriona Gray showed conscience, critical thinking and humanity. What is getting back? Red labeling and even death threats,” he said.

(Liza Soberano, Angel Locsin and Catriona Gray showed awareness, critical thinking, and empathized with others. What do they get in return? Labeling red with death threats)

“It has also had a paralyzing effect on citizens who want to express their views on national problems and hold the government to account,” he said.

The Secretary of Defense, Delfín Lorenzana, and the Secretary of the Interior, Eduardo Año, thanked the senators for inviting them to the hearing and said it was an opportunity for them to “expose the true color of these people who are trying to destroy our democracy. “.

But Lacson, a former head of the Philippine National Police, cautioned that the military should not mislabel activists as terrorists.

“When no distinction is made between a terrorist and an activist, a reformist and a subversive, we run the risk of putting everyone under a suspicious influence and our society in a constant state of insecurity,” Lacson said.

President Rodrigo Duterte previously told police and members of the military to “shut up” instead of tagging celebrities online, according to presidential spokesman Harry Roque.