CPP: NTF-ELCAC’s barangay development programs a ‘band-aid solution’

The barangay development programs of the government’s anti-communist task force are merely “band-aid” solutions that aim to cover up the “roots of peasant unrest in the countryside,” the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said Thursday.

The CPP said the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)’s P20-million fund for development projects for 215 barangays in Region 11 does “not address [the] fundamental demand for genuine land reform and the clamor for respect of ancestral lands.”

“The NTF's barangay projects will fail to quell the growth of resistance in the countryside. The clamor for land and urgent agrarian reforms continue to stir the peasant masses and Lumad people to wage struggles and to support and join the New People's Army,” CPP information officer Marco Valbuena said in a statement.

The NTF-ELCAC’s projects include the establishment of school buildings, health centers, and roads.

“What will the NTF-ELCAC's P20 million bring to 215 barangays (which if distributed equally amounts to P93,000 each)? Practically nothing. Just think, each barangay will get a health center worth P6,976? Or P13,953 for a school building?” the CPP said.

The CPP also accused the NTF-ELCAC of undermining "civilian supremacy" by taking over the functions of civilian agencies through its barangay development projects.

Valbuena also questioned where the rest of the NTF-ELCAC’s P19.2-billion allocation under the 2021 budget will go.

“The billions of pesos of funds of the NTF-ELCAC is the AFP's own war chest for electioneering. It can choose to support the pro-military local officials and prioritize their for-show projects to boost their election plans for 2022,” he said.

“On the other hand, local officials will seek favors of the military to have themselves prioritized for funding and thus boost their election chances,” Valbuena added.

Last year, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon warned that the NTF-ELCAC’s huge budget could be used to advance political interests in the 2022 elections. 

Senator Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, said the P19.2-billion budget was justifiable since it would be used for development programs. 

The NTF-ELCAC has repeatedly clashed with lawmakers, especially in the House of Representatives, where several congressmen objected to being red-tagged by the task force’s officials. — Julia Mari Ornedo/BM, GMA News