No problem with realigning anti-insurgency funds for Rolly response —Palace

Malacañang said Wednesday that the proposal to realign a portion of funds for the anti-insurgency campaign to aid areas battered by Super Typhoon Rolly was consistent with the government’s objective of bringing development to the countryside.

Speaking to CNN Philippines, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said it was within the mandate of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict's (NTF-ELCAC) to aid areas in Bicol, which bore the brunt of the typhoon.

“The objective of the ELCAC is to promote development in areas with ongoing insurgencies because we know that poverty is the root cause of insurgency,” Roque said.

“So, I don’t think there is any inconsistency with the proposal to actually spend funds in the typhoon-damaged areas because, it’s I think, a fact that Bicol also is a hotbed for insurgency, so that would be within the mandate of ELCAC.”

Roque was reacting to the proposal of Senator Risa Hontiveros for the government to reallocate a portion of the NTF-ELCAC’s P19-billion budget for 2021 to rehabilitate areas hit by Rolly, the strongest typhoon so far this year.

Under the NTF-ELCAC’s proposed budget, a huge chunk or P16.4 billion will be used to support the barangay development program.

President Rodrigo Duterte created the NTF-ELCAC in 2018 to implement the government's "whole-of-nation" approach towards "inclusive and sustainable peace." —KBK, GMA News