NTF-ELCAC budget for 2023 may be higher, not lower, says solon

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro. (FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — The proposed 2023 budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is not lower but may actually be higher than its approved budget for the current year.

Rep. France Castro of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers party-list made the observation in a statement issued on Monday.

This is due to changes in how the NTF-ELCAC’s proposed budget was structured, she said.

Under the proposal, the agency’s funding would no longer come from unprogrammed allocations — which are funds that are not immediately available. It would get the funding to a more readily available source.

Barangay development allocation

Castro explained that under the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), P16.169 billion was allocated to the Barangay Development Program of the NTF-ELCAC.

That was subdivided into two sections:

• P5.624 billion under the Assistance to Local Government Units – Local Government Support Fund (ALGU-LGSF)
• P10.545 billion under the Unprogrammed Appropriations (UA)

Unprogrammed appropriations, the lawmaker noted, are a form of funding where the budget is not readily available to the agency. She said this means that NTF-ELCAC has standby authority for the projects but they have to wait for funds to be made available first.

On the other hand, the AGLU-LGSF are readily available funds.

Now, for the proposed 2023 national budget, Castro said that the P10 billion funding for NTF-ELCAC, which was mentioned by Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman earlier, was placed under the ALGU-LGSF.

That means the government can immediately use these funds once the budget is enacted.

Larger funds in 2023?

Earlier, it was reported that NTF-ELCAC’s budget was cut down to P10 billion. This was after Pangandaman was asked after a briefing about how the local government support fund would be distributed.

Pangandaman said that, of the P28.9 billion budget for local government support, P10 billion was for the barangay development program of the NTF-ELCAC.

Castro said, however, that this P10 billion proposed budget would cover only the NTF-ELCAC’s contribution to the P28.9 billion proposed local government support fund.

It would not cover funds appropriated for other agencies like the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which should be used for the NTF-ELCAC’s programs.

According to Castro, this means NTF-ELCAC’s actual funds may be larger than the current year’s P17.1 billion.

“So, we can say that P6.55B was the actual NTF-ELCAC budget in 2022 […] It must also be noted that the funds for NTF ELCAC do not come solely from the BDP,” Castro said.

“The witch hunting and red-tagging body also has funds under different member-agencies like DILG-Office of Secretary and DILG-PNP. From P415.433 million in the 2022 GAA, it now has P1.084B under the 2023 budget,” she added.

Still assessing possible allocations

Casto admitted though that the Makabayan bloc had not finished assessing the proposed budget for possible allocations parked in an agency’s budget which are intended for NTF-ELCAC programs.

“We are still combing the budget books to look for other NTF-ELCAC funds parked in other departments and agencies, especially since the COA has raised multiple red flags regarding unliquidated amounts and irregular or questionable disbursements (among others) under the Office of the President, PNP, and other agencies handling NTF-ELCAC funds,” Castro said.

“But if the proposed budget for 2023 is approved as is, the NTF-ELCAC will at least have P11.084 billion funds readily available, as compared to the P17.1 billion in the 2022 budget, P10.545 billion of which is unfunded,” she added.

Earlier, House officials led by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez formally received the budget from DBM and Pangandaman.

This means the executive branch fulfilled its promise of handing over Congress the budget on Aug. 22 — within the timeline set by the Constitution.

Earlier too, the majority leaders maintained that they were positive that the budget would be passed by October, or before Congress goes into a recess.

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