SENATOR Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson on Monday said recent developments involving decisions based on “false” information may merit at least a suspension of the Department of National Defense’s decision to end its agreement with the University of the Philippines.
Lacson said this after DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzana apologized for an “unpardonable gaffe” involving the military’s list of UP students supposedly recruited by the New People’s Army and killed or captured in clashes.
“I think it is prudent now for Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to at least suspend the termination of the UP-DND accord and hold a dialogue as he already mentioned he would do,” Lacson, who chairs the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, said in an interview on CNN Philippines.
“They based their decision to terminate the UP-DND accord, signed way back, on what appears now to be false information. They included personalities that they said were captured or killed in action by the military, but turned out to be alive and not captured at all,” he added.
But Lacson added Lorenzana and the military establishment “should also be given credit for openly accepting the mistake they made,” adding it “takes a lot of humility particularly for Sec. Lorenzana to publicly apologize for the AFP’s blunder.”
On the other hand, he pointed out that it is basic in military tactics that the success or failure of the execution of a plan of action depends largely on the decision-making process – and the decision must be based on accurate and verified information.
“At the very least, the one responsible for submitting that kind of information and the one who made the announcement should be sanctioned. They should be made to explain and they should really be sanctioned by the AFP leadership if not the DND – not only for putting the defense establishment in an awkward and embarrassing position but more so, the possible dire consequences that could occur because of such irresponsible and imprudent act,” he said.
Lacson also said the development has prompted his committee to review its initial findings on the red-tagging hearings held late last year. He said he has instructed the secretariat of the Committee on National Defense and Security “to revisit the final draft of the committee report.”
“We will have to ask the military to submit additional documents to validate reports on the personalities which they claimed during the committee hearings we conducted were killed, and if they were actually students of the universities mentioned by Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. and the other witnesses presented by the AFP,” he said.
“Naiba ang complexion based on these recent developments. Without these new developments, the committee would have relied on the testimonies and presentations made by the AFP which were not specifically rebutted by the other resource persons,” he added.
Lacson also said criminalizing red-tagging remains a serious consideration, given recent developments.
“Possible consequences could have been disastrous on the part of these people and even the emilitary for that matter, since the troops on the ground could rely solely on the decision being made in headquarters based on false intelligence information,” he said.
