MANILA, Philippines — Minority lawmakers at the House of Representatives are once again pushing to realign the budget of the government's anti-insurgency task force to education and social welfare programs.
On Monday's budget hearing at the lower chamber, Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Partylist) urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to abolish the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which he said was one of two "Duterte legacies" being continued by his administration.
Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) made the same call last week, saying such allocations "divert crucial funds from social services and genuine economic development."
"The bloated confidential and intelligence funds and the NTF-ELCAC are Duterte legacies being enjoyed by the Marcos admin," Manuel said.
"If we have a personal campaign, that is to abolish the Marcos-chaired NTF-ELCAC and realign the confidential and intelligence funds of the Office of the President to education and social services," the lawmaker said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The controversial task force was created through Executive Order 70 signed by former president Rodrigo Duterte in 2018.
Since then, at least two United Nations special rapporteurs have recommended abolishing the task force due to its practice of red-tagging and endangering government critics, media workers, activists, rights defenders and other members of civil society. Rapporteurs are independent experts reviewing countries' rights situations for the UN.
In May, the Supreme Court issued a 39-page decision that established red-tagging as a threat to people’s life, liberty and security, and could warrant the issuance of a protection order.
The Supreme Court decision did not specifically name the NTF-ELCAC, but rights groups welcomed the ruling for the expected boost it will give to pending legislation seeking to punish red-tagging and protect rights defenders.
Rights experts' recommendations 'no bearing'
"Does this have no bearing on our budget officials? These recommendations and points by other agencies?" Manuel asked, addressing Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and other budget officials present during the first day of the budget deliberations at the House.
Pangandaman said no directive to abolish the NTF-ELCAC has been issued from the president.
"As far as I know, the executive order (for the task force) is still in existence. This has not been repealed, abolished or amended," Pangandaman said.
Manuel also scored the proposed P4.5 billion in confidential and intelligence funds for the Office of the President, which is around the same amount it received for this budget year.
The amount, Manuel said, trumps even the secret funds being requested by other security agencies.
The lawmaker asked if it is part of the Office of the President's mandate "to act like an intelligence agency."
Pangandaman said: "As a commander-in-chief... Yes, with inputs from security agencies."
The NTF-ELCAC stands to get at least P7.8 billion this year for its barangay development programs in 2025, at least three times higher than the P2.2 billion it received for 2024.
Human rights group Amnesty International said this shows the Marcos administration "keeps on funding harassment and attacks against activists."
“’Talks’ about communism in schools through the NSTP program and ‘seminars’ in barangays have been organized by NTF-ELCAC wherein they flaunt lists of student and local organizations tagged as ‘terrorists’ or ‘communists’, encouraging students and community members to identify ‘communists’ among their peers," Amnesty International said.
"This dangerous practice continues under this renewed billion-peso budget," the group added.
The House is set to deliberate on the budget of the Office of the President on September 3. — Cristina Chi