The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) issued a plea to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines particularly, Jesuit priest Fr. Romeo Intengan, to engage in a healthy principled debate rather than resort to the usual red-baiting tactic. 

According to Ka Willy Marbella, spokesperson of the group, “now that Fr. Intengan has called our allied organization Pamalakaya as a red-front, the lives and limbs of their leaders and members are put in peril. Agents of the state and military now see them as legitimate targets to be silenced or eliminated. If any untoward incidents happen to Pamalakaya members and its allied organizations, blood is also on the hands of Fr. Intengan,”

“As a priest, he should be responsible of what comes out of his mouth because he represents not only himself or his congregation but the whole Catholic faith. And where did he get the absurd idea that Pamalakaya or our organization is advocating the armed struggle, anyway?” asked the peasant leader.

 Meanwhile Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of KMP, “regarding the national reconciliation plan drafted by Fr. Intengan, we do agree that reconciliation is indeed needed in our country, but it is a reconciliation that is based on justice and not on a mere whim of a regime trying to pass itself as legit,”

“The national reconciliation we envision is one where the interests of the oppressed and exploited comes first rather than the narrow motives of a few who wants to remain in power but does not serve the people or their apologists who seek to have more relevance in this country,” Ala ended. # # #
 

KMP - 27 December 2004