Senate to retain budget of NTF-ELCAC

MANILA, Philippines — Despite being accused of red-tagging, the proposed P19-billion budget for the controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for 2021 will likely remain intact as senators expressed belief that the funds would address problems on the insurgency in over 800 barangays in the country.

Sen. Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the funds were allocated for 820 barangays which have a history of armed conflict.

“We did not move the budget of NTF-ELCAC because it was allocated for 800-plus barangays that had armed conflict. Based on experience in Aurora because we had an insurgency but when the roads were improved, the government had a lot of focus, many went back to the fold,” Angara told radio dwIZ.

“Based on experience, that is what AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) say that some of our fellow kababayans, other sectors believe that the more responsive the government, the more people feel the government answers their need,” he said.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would not allow the President’s budget to be moved further.

“We are willing to increase the calamity fund but we will not take it from there (NTF-ELCAC funds),” Sotto said.

Earlier, Sen. Risa Hontiveros pushed to allot a portion of the P16-billion anti-insurgency fund to relief and rehabilitation efforts of communities badly hit by Super Typhoon Rolly, instead of funding a controversial program under the NTF-ELCAC.

In the agency’s budget proposal for 2021, P16 billion has been allocated to its Barangay Development Program, which has been criticized by senators for being “pork-barrel”-like and prone to abuse.

“Let’s give first aid and funding to the victims of the disaster, not the agencies that are just red-tagging and spreading fake news,” Hontiveros said. “In this time of disaster, our countrymen in Bicolandia and other areas where the typhoon has devastated millions, government funds are in dire need. It is clear that the billions earmarked for NTF-ELCAC would be better spent on helping Filipinos battered by the typhoon get back on their feet,” the senator said.

During the hearing of the Senate committee on national defense, Hontiveros noted that NTF-ELCAC has been allocated a proposed budget of P19 billion for 2021 – P16 billion of which has been earmarked for its Barangay Development Program. The senator also previously called for P8 billion of this P16-billion fund to be allocated to health.

Hontiveros added that the budget for NTF-ELCAC is “questionably astronomic” compared to the proposed budgets of key agencies like the Department of Housing Settlements and Urban Development (P632 million), Office of the Ombudsman (P3.36 billion), DBM (P1.9 billion) and even the Department of Finance (P17.46 billion).

“We should not spend such an inordinate amount of time and money on an agency running after ordinary citizens using the communist bogeyman. This is on top of the NTF-ELCAC’s bad track record of spreading fake news and silencing critical and dissenting voices,” the senator said.

About two weeks ago, Hontiveros defended entertainment personalities and women’s rights groups from the red-tagging activities of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, chief of the Southern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and NTF-ELCAC spokesman.

“I cannot begin to imagine the anguish and emotional toll this must have taken on these women who have been directly hit by these accusations, as well as their families. I am certain that it has also caused a chilling effect on citizens who only want to weigh in on issues of national importance and hold the government to account for its failures to the people,” Hontiveros said.

“The issues of the communist insurgency are not new to me. My party Akbayan historically has called for human rights accountability of non-state actors, including the NPA (New People’s Army). I will not hesitate to speak against the violations of the NPA,” added Hontiveros, who was a member of the government peace panel that met with the National Democratic Front (NDF).

Hontiveros also raised how the Department of National Defense should direct the Armed Forces of the Philippines to address more pressing external national security threats, such as China’s continued incursions in our seas as well as its 40 percent ownership of a telecommunications company inside our military camps.