Higher than work, the tourism fund? Drilon Brands P16B for Anti-Insurgency Program in 2021 Budget

MANILA – Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday pointed to the P16 billion budget next year for an anti-insurgency task force, questioning why it received more funding than the departments of labor and tourism, whose sectors were paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the proposed budget for 2021, the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict will receive about P16.4 billion, while the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Tourism will only receive P15.9 billion and P3. .5 billion, respectively, Drilon said on the first day of budget deliberations in the Senate.

“Are we saying that the communist insurgency is a bigger and more serious problem next year than unemployment … than the shutdown of the tourism industry?” Drilon asked the economic managers during the hearing.

Budget secretary Wendel Avisado told Drilon that the fund would not be spent on the acquisition of weapons and bullets that would be used to fight communist rebels.

“These are projects requested from the barangays, handed over to local government units for implementation … In that way, they would feel that the government is there to meet these needs,” Avisado said.

“There is a certainty that it will not be used for any other program. We have a menu [of projects] already, “he added.

But Drilon pointed out that projects that would help restart livelihoods in areas once infested with rebels could have been implemented by regular departments rather than a “secretariat.”

“Our problem is that we keep creating bureaucracies. We keep creating layers,” Drilon said.

“Next year is an election year, and here is a secretariat that will play God for the barangays,” he said.

“When you have a system like this, it can clearly be used for political purposes.”

Avisado said the P16 billion budget for the anti-insurgency task force had to be included in the 2021 spending bill, as it was a directive from President Rodrigo Duterte, who created the group in 2018.

“This is pursuant to an executive order from the president. We are only looking at the executive order to follow,” said the budget chief.

Under Duterte Executive Order No. 70, the task force is mandated to “provide an efficient mechanism” that prioritizes the “delivery of basic services and social development packages” to former conflict zones to attract the rebels to make peace with the government and reintegrate. in society.

“The important thing is that now they are really programmed for those specific barangays that have already been eliminated. [of armed rebels] instead of broadcasting these programs without a clear purpose, “Avisado said.