Militants heckle Gonzales during security forum

Members of militant groups yesterday heckled national security adviser Norberto Gonzales for tagging their organizations as fronts of the communist movement.

About a dozen members of the League of Filipino Students, Gabriela and Anakbayan sneaked into a forum on national security held at the University of Cebu-Banilad Campus pretending to be participants of the event.

During the forum, organized by the UC and the University of Southern Philippines Colleges of Law, and the UC law students' society, Gonzales discussed the global terrorism and the presence of the leftist organizations in the country that he openly branded as illegal and fronts of New People's Army.

Gonzales, however, did not know that some members of the militant groups have mixed with the participants.

During the open forum, a Gabriela member stood up supposedly to ask the first question, but it was apparently a cue for other members of the group present to start heckling Gonzales.

Even before Gonzales could react, the militants started shouting at him and displayed their red flags bearing the names of their organizations and a placard with the words: "Gonzales murderer."

The group chanted "Gonzales tuta ni Gloria" while forming a human chain in going down the building where they stayed until the cabinet official left the area past 4:00 p.m.

While most of the militants went outside, Kaira Alburo, spokesperson of Gabriela-Central Visayas, stayed at the forum to challenge Gonzales to have her arrested.

Alburo cried foul over Gonzales' statement tagging cause-oriented organizations such as Gabriela as fronts of the NPA. But he bluntly told Alburo that he would stick to the fact that militant groups are fronts of the NPA.

Eduard Felipe, a University of San Carlos student who leads the LFS, said that it was really their plan to hold the protest. Felipe accused Gonzales of inspiring, if not giving authority to, the more than 600 political killings nationwide under the Arroyo administration.

Gonzales just smiled and said that he would tell President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that like her, he was heckled by militant groups but survived. Militant groups have been heckling the President for several occasions, of which one of the latest was in March during the graduation rites at a state university in Cavite.

Gonzales said they were already expecting incidents like the one yesterday to happen, as these were the order from the leadership of the communist party. "We have prepared for this."

Adelino Sitoy, the dean of the UC College of Law, disowned the students who harassed Gonzales, saying that the school administration cannot take action against them because they are outsiders.

Sitoy, however, said that the school could not be held liable for the incident because it happened in a public forum where anybody is welcome. - Fred P. Languido