Makabayan calls for realignment of P19 billion anti-insurgency fund

MANILA, Philippines — Members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives are pushing for the removal of the P19.1-billion proposed budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for next year.

ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro and Kabataan party-list Rep. Sarah Elago called for the realignment of the budget of the anti-insurgency body to the education sector.

“If we rechannel just half or one-third of the P19.1 billion for NTF-ELCAC, P6.3 billion to P9.5 billion will go a long way in the production of self-learning modules (SLMs),” said Castro.

She and Elago argued that the funds should be used for basic services, particularly in the education sector, instead of exercising “relentless red-tagging” of militant groups and celebrities supporting various advocacies.

“Instead of lies, fake news, relentless red-tagging and policies and activities that terrorize the people into silence, the people’s taxes will be spent for the dire needs of teachers and students in the blended mode of learning,” added Castro.

The assistant minority leader said realigning NTF-ELCAC’s budget would ease the pain of schools and teachers “so that they will not be left to their own devices and spend for these expenses out of their own pockets.”

“The country was devastated by the past typhoons, most especially those located in the hardest-hit areas where learning modules are soaked, damaged and torn into pieces. More storms and disasters are sure to come and DepEd and the Duterte government must never adopt the thinking that schools and teachers should take the ‘initiative’ in dealing with these,” she argued.

Castro further proposed that the remaining funds “should go to the medical and socio-economic needs of the people, including those in disaster-prone areas.”

Elago agreed with the proposal, adding that a portion of the fund could be used to boost government’s pandemic response programs.

“The P19 billion of NTF-ELCAC should instead be given to hospitals, medical services and also for gadgets and aids to students and teachers,” Elago said.

“These programs should be prioritized instead of putting funds to NTF-ELCAC that has done nothing but red tag and accuse progressive groups critical of the government of being communists,” she added. — Paolo Romero