Palace shuns calls to defund NTF-ELCAC

Malacañang on Thursday rejected Senators' call to defund the government’s anti-insurgency task force that has a P19-billion allocation under the 2021 budget, and insisted that the people will benefit from it. 

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said this in response to some Senators' defund call, prompted by National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) officials' red-tagging of organizers of community pantries.

Earlier, NTF-ELCAC spokesman Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade, Jr. and Assistant Secretary Lorraine Badoy accused Ana Patricia Non -- one of the organizers of the Maginhawa community pantry -- as communist.

Parlade likened AP Non to Satan offering an apple to Eve, while Badoy alleged that she will not be able to properly account for the P1 billion worth of donation to the Maginhawa community pantry.

During Thursday's Palace briefing, Roque said, “Iyong pondo po ay para sa mga proyekto na magbigbigay asenso sa mga lugar na meron pang rebelde”(That fund is for projects intended to stir progress in rebel-infested areas).

“Hindi naman po justified ‘yan [pagtanggal ng pondo]” (Removing the funds has no justification), Roque added.

The community pantry started by AP Non along Maginhawa St., Quezon City has since inspired similar initiatives across the country, providing free food and meals to the needy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine restrictions that have thrown people out of work.

By comparison, the anti-insurgency task force’s P19-billion allocation under the 2021 national budget dwarfs government money set aside for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, which is only P2.5 billion.

The rest of the P80-billion budget for COVID-19 vaccine procurement are funded through loans.  —LBG, GMA News