Lorenzana: Remote barangays benefitting from NTF-ELCAC’s programs may suffer after budget cut

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Thursday that people from remote barangays may suffer after senators decided to cut the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)’s 2022 budget.

The Senate finance committee has slashed the Executive Department’s P28-billion proposed 2022 budget for the NTF-ELCAC to P4 billion, realigning the rest to health-related programs.

This was disclosed by Finance panel chairman Sonny Angara on Tuesday at a media briefing where he also bared that the panel has realigned over P100 billion to the country’s health programs, including the funding of the COVID-19 response.

“The move by the Senate finance committee to cut the Barangay Development Program (BDP) budget by P24 billion shows their lack of appreciation of the plight of our folks in the remote barangays,” Lorenzana said in a statement.

“Their act was supposed to punish the NTF, but in effect they are punishing the poor people who would have benefited from the infrastructure and social services projects under the BDP. The previous BDP funds were all disbursed through the LGUs,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Defense secretary underscored that the agency is implementing a “whole-of-nation approach” to address the “root causes” of insurgency.

He also advised Vice President Leni Robredo to consider inviting the NTF-ELCAC for a dialogue to “enlighten” on its mission after her remark in favor of the abolition of the agency

“The proposal by Robredo to abolish NTF-ELCAC because it could be used like Tokhang is misplaced. The NTF has been implementing its mandate for the past two years and we have not received any complaints from the target barangays.

The GMA News Online has reached out to Robredo's camp for comment.

Robredo earlier said she was worried the agency could be used for "Tokhang Version 2, in the sense that the mandate given to the body will be abused, will be used to harass people."

Robredo, a presidential aspirant in the 2022 elections, said the Duterte administration's approach against insurgency is purely militaristic instead of targeting and increasing resources for basic services and communities with special focus on conflict-affected areas.

She also then maintained that peace talks with communists groups should resume for the government policy to be more inclusive.

Progressive lawmakers from the House of Representatives have also called for the abolition of the agency, saying that the NTF-ELCAC “did not stop from red-tagging and hurting activists.”

Some senators earlier called for defunding the NTF-ELCAC, and questioned the need to allocate funds to the task force.—Richa Noriega/AOL, GMA News