MANILA, Philippines — More than P13 billion of the barangay development fund under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) have already been released, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Friday.
During the meeting of the House committee on appropriations on the proposed Bayanihan to Arise as One Act, Gabriela Women’s Rep. Arlene Brosas asked the budget department if funds from the NTF-Elcac’s program can be used for the Bayanihan measure.
“As of the latest data that we have, out of the P16.4 billion barangay development fund, we have already released a total of 13.064 billion… there’s only about P3 billion left and these are all earmarked already,” Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said.
“We’re just waiting for the completion of the requirements. We wanted to release them in accordance with the timetable because we need to report back to Congress what has happened to the approved budget for the barangay development fund under NTF-Elcac,” he added.
Brosas said that if the agency will only use the funds for red-tagging, it might as well be used to provide financial assistance to Filipinos amid the pandemic.
Several lawmakers have called for the defunding of NTF-Elcac after the agency was, on numerous occasions, linked to red-tagging issues.