I do not mean or refer to Parlade as a popular or star-studded general shooting indiscriminately, specially red-tagged adversaries.

Instead, I am alluding to him as a meteor, a shooting star that you can see in the night sky! And we all know how hard it is to find one as we need to look up for a long time because it rarely happens – and If ever we see one, it appears only for a few seconds; then, the light disappears from our view… without saying our wish!

General Parlade is retiring this year. He is a rarity. I have not seen anyone in the military who is so focused to end the communist insurgency. Parlade will be gone soon – to the joy of his detractors!

Senators want him gagged and removed from the NTF-ELCAC. He was demonized by the media, Inquirer and Rappler; by journalists like Tetch Torres-Tupas. Mon Tulfo even dipped into the issue with his style of journalism, the “envelopmental tactics”, in case Parlade would bite. I wish to thank Manila Times for allowing Parlade to publish his writings; and having authors taking Parlade’s side, particularly: Rigoberto D. Tiglao and Mauro Gia Samonte in their articles: “General Parlade is a hero” and “How Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. got to enjoy the last laugh”, respectively.

I had a chance meeting with Parlade, Jun to friends, when he was still a Lieutenant Colonel. I was the G6 (not the comptroller) of the Army. Jun invited me as a Guest of Honor and Speaker (GOHAS) at his bailiwick when he was the commander of the Army Security and Escort Group (SEG).

As a token for my speech about recent developments on CEIS (Communications, Electronics and Information Systems), he gave me a one-foot figurine doll of an officer in gray rayadillo uniform. He told me it was made of lahar from Pinatubo and he proudly showed me around the fish pond and the slopes inside the grounds of Fort Bonifacio, the mountain bike trail that he designed and his men constructed. The bike trail became so popular and even civilian outsiders patronized and faced the challenge to try the trail. I am telling you these details, so that you’ll understand what kind of an officer and commander the future general is…

According from this web site, https://www.names.org/n/parlade/about, in Parlade’s previous life: “He was born somewhere around the territory of Hungary approximately on 1775. His profession was philosopher and thinker. Psychologically, he was timid, constrained, and quiet. He had creative talents, waited until that life to be liberated. Sometimes environment considered him strange. His main lesson in present is – to develop magnanimity and feeling of brotherhood; trying to become less adhered to material property and learn to have only as many, as he may give back.”

Hungarians are known ancient warriors, like Vikings and Huns. The prevailing culture really considers Parlade strange. Why would he not just keep quiet? With this description, coming from a soothsayer, there is something true. Likewise, he has developed magnanimity and a feeling of brotherhood among men in uniform.

Again, Parlade is a rarity.

He was once a candidate for the highest award, the medal for valor; but the award was downgraded to Distinguished Conduct Star (DCS), the second highest, for not having any grimacing casualties from his side. He is true to his word that he wishes to end the armed struggle of the communist movement and just let them stick to parliamentary reforms. He is willing to debate the Makabayan Bloc but there are no takers.

Jun was born in Ligao, Albay, inside the hotbeds of NPA atrocities in Bicol Region. His father is a farmer, raising cows in a pastureland. You can just imagine how they manage their farm from armed bandits and cattle rustlers. With aggravating situation, Jun is therefore discarding the idea to go on farming after retirement. There are stories going around that there are retired officers, who went in farming after they left the service. To prevent any trouble from NPAs, these same farmer-officers decided to just give protection money as a concession. They are cursing now as to why they did not clear the area when they had the chance…

Flashback

When EDSA February Revolution happened in 1986, the Marcoses were ousted! No more rallies chanting, “Ibagsak si Marcos at ang Americanong Imperialismo!” President Cory even released Communist leaders Jose Maria Sison and Bernabe Buscayno, both jailed as murderers and subversives by Marcos – would signal the end of the armed struggle of the NPA. That was the year that Jun became a graduating cadet at PMA; and the situation that was awaiting for him at his hometown after graduation in 1987 …

Nevertheless, NPA units, accompanied by a foreign news media with video camera, ambushed members of the Regional Special Action Force (SAF) in March of that year, at a bridge near Guinobatan, the next town from Ligao. According to Los Angeles Times, “It was just after daybreak more than 100 of them opened fire with rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers, killing 18 policemen and two civilians in a 45-minute assault on a troop’s 6×6 truck traveling along the highway below.” The video film was very disturbing when the wounded were reviewed and executed, to send a message! In April of the same year, another 22 soldiers were killed not far from the same site. The son of General Felix Brawner Jr., 1Lt Felix III, a Scout Ranger was killed-in-action.

“By November, the regional chief of military intelligence, Col. Andres Bustamante, was shot and killed in broad daylight in his farm by a 13-year-old boy who was coerced by the Communists”, a local priest said.

Before that, “Rebels took over the town hall in Camalig, the town adjacent to Guinobatan. As hundreds of residents watched, the rebels disarmed the policemen in the town hall, tipped their berets to the crowd and left without firing a shot.”

When President Duterte steps down on June 2022, do you think the NPA will stop their killings? Or like Covid’s mask-hugas-iwas, do we just have to co-exist with them – by paying up?

In my view, while Parlade is still here and before the spotlight dies out, let’s help him finish the fight! Support Parlade by sharing his social media postings for wider audience; and by silencing the Makabayan Bloc and the embedded journalists who support the CPP-NDF-NPA. Finally, for politicians this coming 2022 election, do not agree to pay for a “Permit to Campaign” (PTC); instead, convince NPA fighters to lay down their arms and return to the folds of law through amnesty and livelihood programs of the government that you can make it happen …

And before the falling star disappears from my sight, I tell the deities of the sky, “PEACE, is all what I wish!”

General Parlade is a hero

How Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. got to enjoy the last laugh

Proofread and edited by: Alfonso Francisco V. Alvarez ‘83