DILG to Gaite: ‘It’s just your imagination’

On Mar 16, 2021

BAYAN Muna Partylist Rep. Ferdinand Gaite should just help in the fight against COVID-19 instead of spreading fake news against the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

This, according to DILG officer in charge, undersecretary Bernardo Florece Jr., who also denied that the March 10, 2021, memorandum of DILG Asst. Secretary for Public Safety and Security Alexander Macario, “red-tagged” the group COURAGE and that a hitlist is now being prepared by the government against the organization’s officers and members.

Records will show, Florece said, that it was Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison himself who “red-tagged” or identified the organizations that they have infiltrated and now controlled by the CPP in a video which was shown in a Senate hearing last year on red-tagging.

DILG ‘Officer-In-Charge (OIC) and undersecretary, Bernardo Florece (center), fields questions from the media during a press conference. Florece chided Bayan Muna and former COURAGE president, Ferdinand Gaite, of having a wild imagination for claiming the department has a ‘hitlist’ of COURAGE officers and members.

In fact, the National Intelligence and Coordinating Agency (NICA) has reported that COURAGE has been infiltrated by the Makabayang Kawaning Pilipino (MKP), an underground mass organization (UGMO) that advocates for armed struggle under the direct control of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

“While the Department recognizes our employees’ constitutional right to join associations, they should bear in mind that this right is not absolute.

“It is but the legal and moral obligation of this department to investigate if there are employees within our ranks seeking shelter in the very system they wish to destroy.

“It is our sworn obligation to determine if the organization has been infiltrated and if our employees are being recruited and exploited. Government officials and employees owe allegiance to the Republic at all times,” the official pointed out.

Under Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct for Public Officials and Employees, civil servants shall at all times be loyal to the Republic and to the Filipino people, uphold the Constitution, and put loyalty to country above loyalty to persons or party.

Rep. Gaite’s claim that a hitlist is now being prepared by the government is another figment of his imagination, the DILG said.

“The DILG has its hand full fighting the pandemic for more than a year now that it has no time and energy to engage in his wild schemes,” Florece added.