The government is open to the possibility of having party-list organizations belonging to the Makabayan bloc be disqualified for participating in the 2022 elections due to their links to the communist terrorist group, said National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. on Thursday, Nov. 5.
“That is an option,” Esperon said during an interview on CNN Philippines.
“It may not be us, it may be the citizenry themselves or groups that think they should not become part of this party-list system,” he pointed out.
On the other hand, Esperon admitted that the Makabayan bloc are “not doing anything illegal in Congress.”
“But there are underground organizations that they unwittingly or wittingly support that are connected with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army (NPA) and the underground National Democratic Front (NDF),” the national security adviser said.
Esperon reminded the CPP-NPA-NDF, which is collectively called by the government as a communist terrorist group, are “waging an armed revolution to topple the democratically constituted government and they want power to themselves.”
He said the communist terrorist group has been targeting advocacy groups like the Makabayan bloc “for recruitment purposes, for purposes that are inimical to the national security and well-being of the country.”
“The proof is that those that come from their ranks end up in the ranks of the New People’s Army and underground cadres of the Communist Party of the Philippines,” Esperon said.
Meanwhile, Esperon dared the Makabayan bloc not to snub and instead accept the invitation to participate in the Senate hearings over red-tagging being made by the government on celebrities and other personalities.
“I do not know their reasons but I think they could not defend themselves in the open,” said Esperon who declared that the Makabayan bloc should come face-to-face with the government representatives and refute the allegations of links to the communist terrorist group.
The national security adviser also vouched for the credibility former NPA member Jeffrey Celis who appeared during the Senate hearings but has been accused of being a fake former rebel including by NDF founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison.
“We expected that he will be hit, his credibility will be attacked simply because he is bringing out into the open the realities or the truth about the CPP-NPA-NDF and front organizations,” Esperon said.
Though Celis was named by President Duterte in 2016 as being included in a list of personalities involved in illegal drugs, the national security adviser said he already knew of Celis’s involvement with the NPA even when Esperon was still the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
“He is a very credible witness, having been in the underground,” said Esperon.
Esperon assured that Celis underwent scrutiny during the vetting procees before being presented as witness before the Senate.
“He was in the national operations department and we counter-checked with him several events and he knew it,” Esperon said.