Vice President Leni Robredo (Photo by Charlie Villegas / OVP)
MANILA, Philippines — Presidential aspirant and Vice President Leni Robredo wants to end terrorism using a whole-of-government approach as lapses were noted in the administration’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac), her spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said on Sunday.
“Ang posisyon ni VP Leni, una kaklaruhin ko, importante ang patuloy na laban natin sa terorismo. Ilang beses na niyang paulit-ulit na sinabi ‘yan. Pero ang kailangan nating approach ‘yung whole-of-government approach,” Gutierrez said on BISErbisyong LENI program on DZXL.
(Vice President Robredo’s position is it is important to continue the fight against terrorism. She has said these repeatedly. But, we need a whole-of-government approach.)
“Sinasabi ng iba, ‘yun naman daw ang ginagawa ngayon at ang focus NTF-Elcac. Ang sinasabi natin, ang problema sa NTF-Elcac, ang dami nang sablay,” he added.
(Others say that is what the government does through NTF-Elcac. What we’re saying is, the problem with NTF-Elcac is they have lots of lapses.)
During a Senate hearing, it was uncovered that only 26 out of 2,318 NTF-Elcac projects were completed.
According to Gutierrez, Robredo will continue the fight against terrorism in partnership with other government agencies and civil societies.
“Ang posisyon ni VP Leni, tuloy na tuloy tayo sa ating pagkilos laban sa terorismo. In fact, dapat lalo pang palakasin ang pakikipag-ugnayan at pagkilos ng iba’t ibang ahensya ng ating pamahalaan ka-partner ang ating civil society at iba pang mga institusyon sa ating lipunan para tumutok sa issue na ito,” the spokesman explained.
(Vice President Robredo’s position is we are going to continue the fight against terrorism. In fact, we should strengthen our coordination and movement with different government agencies together with civil societies and other institutions of our society to focus on this issue.)
“Pero ‘di ba, kailangan medyo bagong liderato, bagong porma kahit na buong pwersa pa rin tayong kikilos para dito,” he added.
(But, of course, we need new leadership an we will go all out for this.)
Recently, a Senate panel slashed the NTF-Elcac’s budget by P24 billion, leaving it with a budget of P4 billion in 2022.