Sara Duterte: P1.64B vs Reds in Davao City not ‘judicious’ use of funds

DAVAO CITY—If ever she chose to run for whatever post in next year’s elections, she would not need any money from the government’s anticommunist fund to oil her election machinery, Mayor Sara Duterte said in reply to questions on Davao City’s share in the counterinsurgency budget.

“There is no need to oil any election machinery,” she said in reply to questions raised by Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite on the huge sum Davao City would be getting from the government’s P16.4 billion anticommunist fund.

“I do not need Elcac funds to win any election,” said the mayor and eldest daughter of President Rodrigo Duterte, referring to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

“My track record in making things happen and the accomplishments of the Davao City LGU speaks for itself,” she said.

The mayor also said that the huge sum allotted to Davao City in the government’s anti-communist fund would not be judicious use of public funds because it was way beyond what the local government could implement in one year.

“They should direct their attack to the NTF (National Task Force),” she said.

“If the NTF had only asked me as mayor, I would have told them straight it was not judicious use of public funds because I know the capacity of the LGU to implement projects in one calendar year,” the mayor said in a text message to Inquirer. “I don’t know who told them to allocate that to Davao City,” she said.

The mayor seemed to agree that there were other areas in the country that needed the funds more than Davao City.

“If any other LGU would like to take the share of the 85 barangays, I would gladly give it to them,” Sara said. “The downloaded funds is more than the capacity of the Davao City LGU to implement in one year,” she said.

“I would gladly give it up in favor of Agusan, Surigao or Samar. These areas have intense insurgency problems than Davao City,” she added.

Gaite, who questioned the basis for the huge share given to Davao City and the Davao region from the fund, had asked whether Davao City had become a “heartland” of the insurgency to deserve such a huge share.

“It seems the Duterte camp has started oiling its electoral campaign machinery through the generals’ pork barrel lodged in the NTF-Elcac,” he was quoted by the Inquirer.

Gaite cited Local Budget Circular No. 135 of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) which allotted 1.64 billion of the fund to Davao City. The amount is about 40 percent of the P4.3 billion that the entire Davao region was getting from the Elcac’s barangay development program.

TSB