‘NTF-ELCAC charging administrative expenses to agencies’

MANILA, Philippines — A senator has hit the duplication of budget allocations and zeroed in on the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which she estimates to have charged as much as P4 billion in administrative expenses for its programs to other agencies of government.

Sen. Nancy Binay pointed this out during last Thursday’s deliberations on the proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022 by the Senate finance committee chaired by Sen. Sonny Angara.

The task force was formed via President Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 in 2018, with the mandate to bring development to barangays cleared of communist rebels. The lack of infrastructure and livelihood opportunities is said to be the cause for insurgents to reemerge in “cleared areas.”

But despite having a P19-billion budget this year, the NTF-ELCAC has apparently been charging its “administrative” expenses to various agencies in implementing its programs, said Binay.

She said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Departments of National Defense (DND) and of Education (DepEd) are among those shouldering “administrative” and “support” funds of NTF-ELCAC programs.

The senator estimated as much as P4 billion to have been disbursed by various agencies to support the task force, including P120 million from the DND.

In effect, funds of various agencies get to augment the appropriation for the NTF-ELCAC, whose budget senators had previously noted is bigger than some critical and frontline agencies.

Making her case for a duplication in budget allocations, Binay said the NTF-ELCAC intends to put up or has already put up school buildings in more than 280 barangays. But a check with the DepEd showed that except for 33 areas, all of these barangays already have school buildings.

“Obviously, the construction of school buildings was not carefully thought out. You also need teachers, learning facilities, books, textbooks, etc., which also require budgets. The budget for school buildings will be in better hands with DepEd,” she said.

For 2022, Duterte is asking Congress for P28.1 billion budget for the NTF-ELCAC, which has been criticized for allegedly “red-tagging” prominent personalities critical of the government.

Earlier, Binay lamented that while the NTF-ELCAC is being supported with a bigger budget for next year, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), a key frontline agency in the fight against the pandemic, saw steep budget cuts.

During the DND budget deliberations last week, Sen. Panfilo Lacson noted a request for P36.807 million for the AFP as support for the NTF-ELCAC hidden under its proposed maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) for 2022.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana confirmed that agencies need to shell out their own funds to help implement the NTF-ELCAC programs.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon warned that the increased budget for the task force could be used to help the administration candidates’ campaign in 2022.

He lamented the measly P3.45-billion funding set aside to assist thousands of distressed micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) affected by the pandemic as against the task force’s allocation which is eight times bigger.

“We should be able to support MSMEs especially when they are struggling,” said Drilon, who noted that MSMEs employ 63 percent of the country’s workforce.