House appro panel keen to restore NTF-ELCAC’s P10-billion budget for 2023

The House appropriations committee on Wednesday called for the restoration of the P10-billion allocation for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) under the proposed P5.26-trillion budget for 2023.  

The "House bicameral panel will work with its Senate counterparts to restore the agency’s reduced budget as instructed by House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Deputy Senior Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander 'Sandro' Marcos," said the statement issued by appropriations panel chairperson Elizaldy Co of Ako Bicol party-list.

“Congress recognizes the important role the NTF-ELCAC plays to help end the country’s decades-long insurgency. Thus, we will convince our Senate counterparts in the bicameral conference committee to restore the agency’s proposed budget,” Co said in the statement.

“After all, this is one of the key priorities of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. clearly outlined in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) the administration sent to Congress,” he added.

The organization's P10-billion proposed budget for 2023 had been reduced to P5 billion by the House.

Senate finance panel chairperson Sonny Angara earlier likened the NTF-ELCAC fund to pork barrel or discretionary funds, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional in 2013. 

In November 2021, a Senate panel had noted that only 26 of the NTF-ELCAC's 2,318 projects in its P16.4-billion barangay development program had been completed.

Co, however, said that in the latest report submitted to the committee, the NTF-ELCAC has so far completed 48 percent of its projects under its Support for Barangay Development Program (SBDP) in 2021, while the other 48% are ongoing. The remaining two percent are still in the procurement stage.

Co said the situation worsened in 2022, with only two percent of NTF-ELCAC’s 2022 projects completed or ongoing and a whopping 98% still in the pre-procurement or procurement stage.

Co also said that the NTF-ELCAC leadership should ensure speedy implementation of its projects and consider collaborating with agencies that are better equipped to handle project procurement and implementation.

“NTF-ELCAC should exert more effort to fully utilize the budget allocated by Congress. Otherwise, these will just go back to the national treasury instead of being utilized for Filipinos who need more and better social services,” Co said.

Aside from huge amount of unfinished projects, NTF-ELCAC has also drawn flak for tagging opposition figures, unarmed government critics, the National Union of People's Lawyers (NUPL), and individuals such as community pantry organizer Patricia Non as communist rebels or sympathizers. It has also accused dozens of schools and universities as being hotspots for NPA recruitment. 

Then-President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order 70 dated December 4, 2018 which created the NTF-ELCAC under the Office of the President.

NTF-ELCAC's mandate is "to ensure efficient and effective implementation of the Whole-of-the Nation Approach for the attainment of inclusive and sustainable peace by prioritizing and harmonizing the delivery of basic services and social development packages in conflict affected areas and vulnerable communities, facilitating societal inclusivity and ensuring active participation of all sectors of society in the pursuits  of the country's peace agenda." — BM, GMA Integrated News