Senators Joel Villanueva and Sherwin Gatchalian. PRIB FILE PHOTOS
MANILA, Philippines — At least two senators are seeing the need to withdraw funding for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) and reallocate its current P19-billion budget to fund assistance to people affected by the pandemic.
This comes after the statement issued by NTF-Elcac spokesperson Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. against the organizer of the Maginhawa Community Pantry.
“Oh my! We should move to defund NTF-ELCAC in the next budget. Sayang lang pera ng taong bayan,” Senator Joel Villanueva said in a tweet late Wednesday.
“Reallocate the current P19B budget for ayuda. Mas kailangan ito ng taumbayan kaysa sa mga ganitong kalokohan!” he added.
Villanueva was reacting to Parlade’s remark in an interview over One News’ The Chiefs last Tuesday, where the military official likened the Maginhawa Community Pantry to Satan’s apple.
“Isang tao lang ‘yan ‘di ba? Si Ana, si Patricia ‘di ba. Same with Satan. Si Satan binigyan ng apple si Eve, doon lang nagsimula ‘yon,” Parlade said, referring to Ana Patricia Non, the organizer of the Maginhawa Community Pantry in Teacher’s Village, Quezon City.
READ: Maginhawa community pantry to continue despite Red-tagging, says organizer
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian agreed with Villanueva’s suggestion to defund NTF-Elcac saying: “If these are the kind of people who will spend hard-earned taxpayer’s money, then it’s not worth it.”
When Congress was tackling the 2021 national budget last year, the minority bloc in the Senate repeatedly called for the realignment of NTF-Elcac’s budget to augment funds for the government’s pandemic response.
However, the budget of the task force remained intact due to the request of the executive department that it be retained since President Rodrigo Duterte is “very adamant” to solve the underlying problems of insurgency in the country.
READ: Senate panel leaves Duterte’s P19-B anti-insurgency program untouched
READ: Bicam’s version of 2021 budget retains P19-B NTF-ELCAC funding
Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas also recently moved to have NTF-Elcac’s current budget realigned to fund the proposed measures seeking to provide financial assistance to pandemic-hit citizens.
The NTF-Elcac, which has been linked to a number of controversies involving red-tagging, was criticized for sharing social media posts saying that community pantries are being used for propaganda of communist groups.
READ: Palace to anticommunist task force: Leave community pantries alone
But Parlade said they were “just checking” the background of those behind the highly popular community pantries to make sure that organizers do not have any other agenda.