ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro and the other Makabayan Coalition members did not rely on wild rumors when they compiled documents regarding the dubious disbursements of P125 million in purported Contingency and Intelligence Fund (CIF) in the final 11 days of 2022, all of it “advanced” from the Contingent Fund (CF) of the Office of the President (OP.)
The money, at the outset, was not appropriated for CIF and Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio was not entitled to it since she was operating on the 2022 budget left by then Vice President Leni Robredo, who never received a single red cent of CIF in six years. Since the money came from the CF, Sara is accountable for it. Has she settled the matter with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin?
Now, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has practically banned Rep. France Castro from visiting political prisoners and ordinary citizens denied of liberty based on a letter written by retired Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, who claimed that Castro was visiting BJMP jails to meet with detained drug lords “to solicit cash for her senatorial campaign.” Parlade, former spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), is a rabid Red-tagger who can weave fairy tales and psywar scenarios out of thin air. His evidence-free accusations against activists, party-list legislators and local officials have led to systematic harassment and illegal arrests and prosecution of those whom he had denounced. This led to the filing of cases against him and the NTF-ELCAC.
Former ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio explained that BJMP officials can be held criminally, administratively, and civilly liable for relying on allegations from Parlade. Parlade and Lorraine Badoy Partosa were found guilty by the Ombudsman of conduct prejudicial to public service in March 2023 by their constant Red-tagging and were kicked out of the NTF-ELCAC. Partosa and Jeffrey Celiz were also slapped with a P2-million fine by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 306 in December 2024 for red-tagging broadcast journalist Atom Araullo and his mother, Dr. Carol Araullo.
In a landmark ruling issued on May 8, 2024, the Supreme Court (SC) declared that “red-tagging” is a threat to people’s life, liberty and security and prompted the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) to demand that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. endorse the ruling and forthwith stop the practice propagated by the NTF-ELCAC and its affiliates. Both the Duterte and Marcos Jr. regimes have accused individuals and groups of supporting the country’s communist insurgency preparatory to harassing, threatening, assaulting or killing them. Aside from Parlade, another avowed “enemy” of Castro is Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio who just announced her candidacy for president in 2028, and mocking those who want her impeached.
Hope springs eternal, the saying goes, and the show staged by the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) on Jan. 13 actually emboldened Sara, of Jewish descent, to say she is running in 2028 and signaling to businesses and Chinese corporations that she needs their support. In a sign that she soliciting funds this early, Sara complained that the Office of the Vice President (OVP) has no appropriation for medical and burial assistance, making it impossible now for her to help the many people surnamed Piattos, Nova and Villamin who also moonlight as her informers, snitches, school bullies and even as operators in her army of trolls and crones.
When the House of Representatives investigated the OVP and Castro and the other Makabayan lawmakers accumulated documents from the Commission on Audit (COA), the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Education (DepEd) and even Malacanang, Castro was subjected to a steady stream of death threats. The threats intensified after Sara demanded that Castro be kicked out of the panel probing her. Sara simply doesn’t know the law and the rules. The Parlade rumor sent to the BJMP may just as well be part of the Duterte campaign to denigrate her critics, particularly those that she cannot buy or bully around. Castro has demanded a public apology and retraction of the BJMP memorandum that ordered jail officers to closely monitor detained “suspected Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) members.”
Castro said “this is a dangerous and malicious act of red-tagging by the BJMP. They are using an unverified social media post from a discredited source to justify surveillance and monitoring of a sitting member of Congress and political prisoners.” The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers said it is both ludicrous and deeply concerning that BJMP would consider an unverified Facebook post from what they described as “an unreformed red-tagger as sufficient basis for policy.” The NUPL said that the memorandum violates both the international and domestic human rights laws. “It undermines the presumption of innocence enshrined in the Constitution (Article III, Section 14) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) by imposing punitive measures without trial. They also violate the right to privacy and human dignity, as affirmed in the ICCPR (Article 17), by subjecting detainees to invasive surveillance and severely restricting essential correspondence and visitor interactions,” NUPL concluded.
