Malacañang expressed support in using the proposed funds of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) for relief and recovery efforts in Super Typhoon Rolly-hit areas.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said NTF-Elcac in helping typhoon victims in Bicol regions still falls under the task force’s purpose.
“The objective of ELCAC is to promote development in areas with ongoing insurgencies because we know that poverty is still the root cause of insurgency,” Roque said in an interview over CNN, Philippines.
“So I don’t think there is any inconsistency with the proposal to actually spend funds in typhoon damaged areas because it is a fact that Bicol also is a hotbed for the insurgency. So that would be within the mandate of ELCAC,” he added.
On Tuesday, opposition senators recommended using NTF-Elcac’s budget for typhoon Rolly rehabilitation.
“During these times of calamities, our people in Bicolandia and other areas are in dire need of the millions of [pesos] from the government. It is clear that the billions earmarked for the NTF-Elcac would be better spent on helping Filipinos battered by the typhoon get back on their feet,” Senator Risa Hontiveros said.
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The NTF-Elcac has P16 billion of the P19-billion 2021 budget allocated in developing 800 barangays that were “freed” of communist rebels.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also supported defunding the task force, saying, “I am confident that my fellow senators will find this proposal meritorious.”
Hontiveros earlier emphasized that the NTF-Elcac’s budget was much bigger than key agencies like the Office of the Ombudsman (P3.36 billion); Department of Finance (P17.46 billion); the Department of Housing Settlements and Urban Development (P632 million); and Department of Budget and Management (P1.9 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,” she said.