Combination photos of (L-R) Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, and Senators Nancy Binay, Joel Villanueva, Grace Poe, and Sherwin Gatchalian.
MANILA, Philippines — Five senators are pushing for a Senate probe into how the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) is spending its P19-billion budget and fulfilling its mandate.
The senators filed on Monday Senate Resolution No. 707, which seeks to direct the appropriate Senate committee to look into whether the anti-insurgency task force was “effective” in carrying out its mandate and “efficient” in spending its budget.
“There is a need to draw the line between legitimate government counter-insurgency strategies against internal armed conflicts and threats on the one hand, and the silencing and crippling of innocent civilians with baseless and unsubstantiated claims, on the other,” the resolution read.
The senators underscored the need to review how the NTF-ELCAC is performing its mandate or whether its P19.1 billion budget for 2021 should instead be used to help address the needs of Filipino citizens amid the pandemic.
“[W]ith the limited resources of the government, especially at this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in view of the Constitutional principle that ‘[p]ublic office is a public trust,’ all government agencies are expected to use their budget judiciously, effectively, and efficiently pursuant to their mandate,” the resolution read.
The resolution was filed by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Senators Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Joel Villanueva.
The senators’ call for a review on NTF-Elcac’s performance comes following reports of “baseless and malicious red-tagging, profiling, and police interference of community pantries” that resulted in either temporary or permanent stoppage in their operations as it “instilled fear in the organizers and volunteers for their safety and lives.”
“In an interview, NTF-Elcac spokesperson Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr. dropped ‘unverified’ insinuations of communist ties of the community pantry organizer,” the senators said in the resolution.
“Rather than a bona fide effort to counter insurgencies in the country, the agency’s actions have only served to deter the lawful exercise of the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression of every Filipino, and cast doubt as to the true intent behind its operations,” they added.
RELATED STORIES
Senate can give NTF-ELCAC ‘zero budget’ in 2022, says Drilon
Gag order aims to stress that Parlade, Badoy not against ‘bayanihan’ – Esperon