Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana ordered the Provost Marshal to investigate the alleged red-tagging statements of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesman, to a journalist of Inquirer.net.

"With that statement of our good secretary ( of national defense Delfin Lorenzana), I ordered our Chief of Provost Marshal to coordinate to the NTF ELCAL particularly to the strategic communication committee, to determine if the public statements of Gen. Parlade is with the blessing of the said committee," Sobejana said in a public briefing on Tuesday.

"We wanted to be deliberate. We give due process because the subject of the investigation is an individual member of the organization. So I ordered our Provost Marshal who is responsible on that matter," he added.

In a television interview on Monday, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he will order the AFP to conduct an investigation to determine if Parlade deserves punishment because of his alleged red-tagging statement on Inquirer.net journalist Tetch Torres-Tupas

When asked about his directives to the military troops related to issue of red-tagging, Sobejana reiterated that the military should be accurate in identifying the enemies of the state.

"We should be very careful. The default is that the public or everybody is our friend then as we do our job in a very deliberate manner .We will know who are the enemies of the state, then once they are accurately identified then we have to exert our effort, with our strategy, our values, projects, activities and programs for us to win over the threat to national security," he said. Robina Asido/DMS