Sotto defends retention of P19-B anti-insurgency budget

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Friday defended the retention of P19 billion budget for anti-insurgency task force under the P4.5 trillion national budget for next year.

In a statement, Sotto said conflicted and geographically isolated barangays cleared of insurgents under the government’s anti-insurgency campaign need to be rehabilitated and rebuilt into developed rural communities to sustain government efforts to cut them off from communist influence.

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has been allotted a P19 billion budget for 2021—the amount is over seven times higher than the P2.5 billion allotted for procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.

Earlier, opposition lawmakers called for the realignment of the budget under the NTF-ELAC to augment funding for calamity funds COVID-19 vaccines.

However, the bicameral conference committee retained

Sotto also said there is a “need to sustain rural development programs that the government has already started to carry out in these barangays.”

“Kapag natanggal mo ang insurgency sa isang area, halimbawa isang barangay or isang maliit na munisipyo o sitio, hindi natatapos ang trabaho doon. Kailangan lagyan mo iyong lugar ng mga paaralan, bigyan mo ng pagkakakitaan ang mga residente, tulungan mong makabangon muli ang mga tao. Ganoon ang dapat gawin dahil kung hindi, masisira ulit ang tingin nila sa pamahalaan. Magiging madali na ulit na papaniwalain sila sa panloloko ng mga komunista,” Sotto said.

“[T]hese programs cannot be sustained if their funding is cut. So we have to make sure that the government has the budget to continue what it has started,” he added.

Sotto also appealed to the public to give the anti-insurgency campaign a chance to succeed “so people in the countryside can live normal and peaceful lives.”

On Wednesday, Congress ratified the final version of the national budget for 2021.—Ma. Angelica Garcia/AOL, GMA News