Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri is open to opposition senators’ recommendations to use a portion of the P19-billion anti-insurgency budget to replenish for typhoon relief efforts.
“We can probably reduce it. We can find ways, but let’s not take out the whole budget” of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), he said in a radio interview on Sunday.
However, Zubiri later clarified that he meant that “a small portion” of the NTF-Elcac’s budget could be realigned to Luzon’s local governments’ disaster response.
“I’m not sure what the ratio will be but definitely not the whole amount as we need those funds as well to help the programs in those far-flung barangays to stem insurgency,” he said through Viber.
“A small portion could be enough to help the areas of Bicol and Luzon hit by Typhoons ‘Quinta, ‘Rolly’ and ‘Ulysses’ in a span of two weeks straight,” Zubiri said.
The senator said the proposal to divert part of NTF-Elcac’s budget was a “good idea” after seeing the extent of damage in the affected provinces he recently visited.
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Zubiri supports using part of anti-communist fund for relief
“When I visited the ground, I saw the people’s needs, so if there is funding for rehabilitation, I welcome that, but not necessarily the whole amount, because there are barangays that need development funds for counterinsurgency in their communities,” Zubiri said.
Zubiri said he still supports granting most of the NTF-Elcac’s proposed 2021 budget, including a P16 billion allocation for the “Barangay Development Program” in 842 villages supposedly cleared of communist influence.
“What we’ll also do is to ask for additional funding for local governments whose calamity funds have been depleted,” he added.
“They should not lose hope. The Senate will help you with funding,” Zubiri said, addressing local executives who had been pleading for more disaster relief funds from the national government.
Opposition Senators Risa Hontiveros and Francis Pangilinan and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon earlier sought the realignment of the entire budget of the NTF-Elcac.