FILE PHOTO: Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. VALERIE ESCALERA/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Tuesday justified its proposed P28-billion funding of the government’s anti-insurgency task force for next year even as the country remains grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) will receive a whopping P28.1 billion budget if Congress permits it under the executive branch’s proposed 2022 National Expenditure Program. NTF-Elcac’s 2022 funding would be higher than the P19 billion budget it received for this year.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said insurgency still needs to be addressed despite a persistent public health crisis.
“Maski nandiyan ang pandemya, alam pa rin natin na ang kagutuman ang dahilan nang pag-aalsa. Itong mga proyektong ito ay magbibigay hanapbuhay doon sa mga nahihirapan sa buhay na dahilan kaya sila nagiging rebelde,” he said in a Palace briefing.
(Even though there’s a pandemic, we know that hunger remains a reason why people are revolting. These projects will give livelihoods to the poor who are forced to be rebels.)
“Ito ay sang-ayon din doon sa ating istratehiya kung paano tayo babangon galing po dito sa pandemya na ito – that is to provide more development projects nang sa ganoon mas maraming hanapbuhay at mas maraming pera ang iikot sa ating ekonomiya,” he added.
(This is also in line with our strategy to bounce back from the pandemic — that is to provide more development projects so that there would be more livelihoods and more money will circulate in our economy.)
READ: Anti-communist task force will get P28-billion funding
Roque explained that agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and local government units will still be the agencies that would implement the projects but that the funding will only come from NTF-Elcac’s budget.