Militants warn of ‘Hitler’ in DND

The militant Left was livid in rage as soon as it learned of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales’ new posting in concurrent capacity at the Department of National Defense (DND), a post that he held as caretaker two years ago.

“(President) Arroyo has just brought Adolf Hitler back to life to head the Department of National Defense, a department that has a consistent record for stoking domestic conflicts and escalating violence versus government critics,” the Left-wing labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said in a statement.

The KMU described Gonzales as “one of the brains and chief implementors” of Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2 which it said was “responsible for the extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances of activists,” a claim that the government and the military establishment had repeatedly denied.

But Malacañang laughed off KMU’s claims about Gonzales’ alleged involvement in human rights abuses.

Malacanang spokesman Gary Olivar, a former activist in the 1970s, told the State-run dsRB radio that there was no case involving Gonzales among the 253 extra-judicial killings being handled by the Department of Justice.

Olivar added that the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines were looking forward to working with Gonzales.

Notwithstanding the blistering criticisms leveled at Gonzales, outgoing DND chief Gilberto Teodoro, who would begin today his quest to become the country’s next president, cited “experience in the department” as enough to justify Gonzales’ handling the defense portfolio.

“It’s a President’s choice. He has experience at the department already and I am sure he would do his best,” Teodoro said. “He has served as DND secretary before, he is civilian so I mean that’s the choice of the Commander-in-Chief, the choice of the President and we must support her choice,” he added.

Teodoro Jr., the Lakas-Kampi-CMD coalition’s standard-bearer in 2010 presidential elections, will formally relinquish his post today.

Teodoro’s resignation was delayed by successive onslaught of four typhoons in the country during the months of September and October that required massive government disaster relief operations particularly in Northern Luzon regions.

Asked to rate his stint as defense chief for more than two years, Teodoro immediately replied: “I tried my best, I really tried my best.”

Teodoro, the youngest to be appointed as Secretary of Defense, came into DND in 2007 when Gonzales was the department’s caretaker.

Asked to comment on criticisms by the militant sector about Gonzales’ involvement in human rights abuses, Teodoro commented: “Whether militant or not, we have human rights awareness programs and we are into enforcement. I think that will not change.”

In its statement, the KMU also raised the possibility that Gonzales’ new posting at the DND would facilitate the signing of a “memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain Part 2” with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, “in light of recent statements made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that “What I have often found is that it is easier to make the difficult decisions when you are on the way out of office. Because… you are willing to brave the political fires.”

The KMU also recalled that when Gonzales was being investigated by the Senate for his role in the Venable LLP controversy, he was rushed to the hospital and stayed there for days because of a health condition. The KMU was referring to the nearly $1-million contract Gonzales signed with the US lobby firm, Venable LLP, to secure donations and US Congress earmarks to support the Arroyo administration’s Charter Change initiative.

“We are concerned not so much by his general health, as by his mental health. His crimes against the Filipino workers and people are so mind-boggling and his passion for his violent and anti-people cause is so intense, we cannot help but question his sanity to hold whatever government post — now and in the future,” the KMU went on to say in its broadside against Gonzales. –Mario J. Mallari, Daily Tribune with PNA