NSA Carlos: Calls by Indigenous Peoples Commission for NTF-ELCAC resignations unhelpful

National Security Adviser Clarita Carlos on Friday said it was not helpful for National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) Chairperson Allen Capuyan to call for the resignation of ineffective officials of the anti-insurgency council.

Carlos said Capuyan was clueless about the efforts of National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict personnel.

She said instead of criticizing other government agencies, she encouraged him to work together with the NTF-ELCAC.

“Hindi nakakatulong na magsalita ng ganito. Wala naman magagawa kung magpapa-resign ka. Ano, papalitan mo ng tao na wala ring alam? Siguro magtulungan na lang tayo at hindi nakakatulong yung ganyang pagbabatikos,” she said.

(Such a statement does not help. Resignations cannot do anything. You would replace them with another person who also does not know anything? Perhaps, let’s just help each other because that criticism would not help.)

For Carlos, Capuyan should work on improving the NCIP before interfering with other agencies.

In a statement on Monday, Capuyan urged not only those ineffective officials from his Commission but also those from the NTF-ELCAC to resign.

“Thus, I also call for the voluntary tender of resignations of some members of the Secretariat of the NTF-ELCAC who failed to perform concrete actions since the start of the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., thereby making the Task Force irrelevant and unresponsive to developments on the ground,” he said.

Capuyan said he witnessed how some NTF-ELCAC personnel failed or refused to act based on the task force's function.

“Such inaction would ultimately cause the NTF-ELCAC to become irrelevant. The absence of a formal hand-over of the series of presentations of the former leadership of the NTF-ELCAC has exacerbated the situation,” he added.

Meanwhile, Carlos said the NTF-ELCAC received only a P6.4 billion budget under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which is lower compared to their expected budget of P10 billion.

“Sa kasamaang palad, yung inaasahan naming P10 billion ay medyo bumaba ng kaunti naging P6.3 billion siya at iniimbestigahan namin kun bakit nagkaroon ng ganitong kababaan,: he said.

(Unfortunately, the P10 billion that we expected was cut to P6.3 billion and we are investigating why it is that low.)

Due to this, Carlos said they would first fund high-priority projects.

Senate finance panel chairperson Sonny Angara had said Congress restored the NTF-ELCAC's P10 billion budget which was reduced to P5 billion in the House version of the proposed budget. — DVM, GMA Integrated News