The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) once again castigated the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for sowing misinformation on media. 

According to Ka Willy Marbella, spokesperson of KMP, “the ploy of the AFP by saying that foreign aid is being redirected to communist rebels, is so that they can justify further attacks on organizations like ours, for the passing of the Anti-Terrorism bill and the excuse to look into bank accounts of progressives organizations, violating the bank secrecy law,”

“Actually it seems that they have already started last March 22, a so-called bank employee called us up at the office, asking where our funding comes from. This is so irregular considering that the bank has been doing our money transactions for years and this has not been done, another point is that the employees themselves know whom we transact with. There is no need for them to ask us because they know our transactions in the first place,” added Marbella.

As for his part Carl Anthony Ala, public information officer of the group, “the military is now evading the issue and trying to go on a propaganda offensive. But have they even stopped to check who handles the funding from foreign aid? It is the government itself through its agencies like the Department of Land Reform (DLR), Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) with the participation of pseudo-progressive NGOs. If they really want to know were the funding went ask the people in these agencies and NGOs,”

“To make a long story short the AFP is concocting a tall tale just to get out of the mess, it has gotten into,” ended Ala. # # #
 

KMP - 9 April 2005