P28B ‘election war chest’? Drilon to oppose ‘tooth and nail’ NTF-ELCAC’s 2022 budget

MANILA, Philippines— Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Tuesday vowed to oppose “tooth and nail” the budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) next year, as he warned that the 2022 national appropriation could be used as a “huge campaign kitty.”

“We should be more vigilant. The 2022 budget is an election budget. We must not allow the budget to be used for election or partisan political activities,” Drilon said in a statement.

While the government has yet to submit to Congress the proposed national budget next year, Drilon is already anticipating that the anti-insurgency task force would seek bigger fundings for barangays “in an election year.”

Drilon, however, warned of a whopping P28 billion “election war chest” from the NTF-ELCAC’s budget alone in 2022.

This as he noted the pronouncement of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, vice chairman of the task force, that the number of “cleared” barangays has increased by 1,398 — from 822 to 2,220. The 822 barangays, the senator said, had already received funding from the task force’s P16.4-billion so-called barangay development program.

“That will be a whopping P28 billion election war chest. We will vehemently oppose the budget of NTF-ELCAC,” Drilon pointed out.

The senator stressed he is ready to oppose the budget of NTF-ELCAC “tooth and nail” as he believes many of his colleagues would propose to defund or give a zero budget to the task force.

“In fact, we will propose that every centavo that will be allocated to NTF-ELCAC in the to-be-submitted NEP (National Expenditures Program) be realigned to our pandemic response and ayuda or financial assistance to the poor who continuously experience hunger because of the pandemic,” he said.

“Instead of allocating billions of taxpayers’ money to NTF-ELCAC, let us increase the budget of 4Ps or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. Let us use the funds to assist our jobless kababayans,” he added.

It is likewise “obvious” that NTF-ELCAC’s barangay development program is “disguised as an anti-insurgency countermeasure but, in reality, it is meant to help boost the chances of the administration candidates for next year’s election,” Drilon said.

Several senators, including Drilon, had also initiated a resolution castigating the spokesman of the task force, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., over his “derogatory” and “demeaning” remarks against some members of the Senate amid red-tagging allegations being hurled at him.

JE