Sen. Christopher Go (Photo from his Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — Government workers, including military and police personnel, should support and even participate in running community pantries, Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go said in a post he made on Facebook late Wednesday night.
Go said he had talked about the issue earlier in the day with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.
“Not only do we welcome and commend these efforts, we also agreed to encourage all government workers, including AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippoines] and PNP [Philippine National Police] personnel, to participate and show utmost support to community-driven initiatives aimed at helping Filipinos cope with the ongoing pandemic,” Go said in his post.
“I am urging each of us working in the government to contribute to the community pantries in our respective neighborhoods in fulfillment of our duty to serve our people by all means possible,” he added.
Go issued the statement hours after social media went abuzz with complaints of red-tagging of organizers of the food aid centers — particularly, Ana Patricia Non, the 26-year-old who started the Maginhawa Community Patry that inspired a nationwide movement.
Netizens even reported that some police officers visited some pantries asking questions about the affiliation of their organizers.
Malacañang later issued a statement asking the anti-communist task force to leave the community pantries alone.
Previously, organizers of the initiative and their supporters accused the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) of red-tagging and even profiling them.
“Let’s be open and not make it hard for those who want to help,” Go said in Filipino his Facebook post.
“Whenever the government has a program for the people, we encourage the public to follow and join. So when it’s the public that has its own initiative to benefit the people, it’s the duty of the government to support, participate, and strengthen it so that more people would benefit,” he added.