Antonio Gumba Parlade Jr.[1][2][3] is a former Filipino military officer who retired as commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Luzon Command in 2021,[4][5] and was best known for his combative[6] terms as spokesman for the Philippine Army before he was removed from that post in 2011, and later, as spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
[3][10] Parlade later also completed the Special Forces Operations Course, the Command and General Staff Course at the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Leavenworth County, Kansas, and the Executive Course on Defense Decision Making at Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, California.
Upon first being accepted into the Armed Forces, Parlade Jr volunteered to be assigned to the 6th Infantry "Kampilan" Division of the Philippine Army (6ID PA) in Mindanao, which was active in counterinsurgency combat operations against the Moro National Liberation Front.
[3] According to Parlade's account in his family's published memoirs, he experienced frustrations with corrupt superiors in the 6ID, which led him to join the Reform the Armed Forces Movement Young Officers Union,[12] a faction of officers which had withdrawn its support from the administration of Corazon Aquino and called, among other things, for an "overhaul of the AFP and a hard line communist stand.
Colonel, he was chosen to take his Master of Military Science at the US Army Command and General Staff course in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
[19] The Philippine government decided to pursue the mechanisms of the Bangsamoro peace process after the encounter, which the media called “one of the Army’s worst operational blunders in recent history.” [19] But Parlade stated on television that the government should suspend the ceasefire it had with the MILF in Basilan at the time, and let the army pursue the MILF forces involved in the encounter.
[11] After his tour of duty as brigade commander, Parlade became the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, and following his position, Parlade was named as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil-Military Operations, J7, in March 2019, where he launched programs towards civic engagements, partnerships, and discussions with various stakeholders and partners of the AFP, from both the public and private sectors.
Parlade also subsequently serves as the spokesman of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and continued his hard line approach against the CPP/NPA.
"[29][better source needed] In October 2020, he accused of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno of "welcoming … terrorist[s]" to the city after the Moreno ordered the taking down of unauthorized tarpaulins that declared Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) members, New People's Army (NPA) fighters and national democrats as personae non gratae in the city.
[30][5][31] In the same month, he made similar allegations against a number of high-profile celebrities, including Angel Locsin, Liza Soberano, and Catriona Gray by associating their advocacy and rights activism work with the New People's Army[32][33][34] In February 2021, a Committee report from the Philippines' Senate Committee on National Defense criticized his behavior, saying it was bad for the government's anti-insurgency campaign.
[4] In that same month, the Armed Forces of the Philippines launched an investigation on Parlade's alleged "red-tagging" after he called journalist Tech Torres-Tupaz a “communist propagandist.”[35] His role as a spokesperson was put into dispute, when Senator Ping Lacson questioned the legality of Parlade's appointment believing it to be a violation of the constitution's provision under Article 16, Section 5 of the Constitution, barring active members of the military from holding civilian positions.
[42] Parlade submitted his candidacy for president in the upcoming 2022 presidential elections under the Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino party (KDP), but he was not included in the list of official candidates by COMELEC.