Some House members are ‘open’ to calls to realign the anti-insurgency fund for typhoon victims

MANILA – Some members of the House of Representatives said Thursday that they were open to pressure from the minority Senate bloc to realign a portion of the 19 billion pls anti-insurgency fund to increase the budget for typhoon victims.

Under the proposed budget for 2021, the National Task Force to End Local Armed Communist Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) will receive around P19 billion to provide livelihood projects in rural communities to deter villagers from joining the communist insurgency.

“There should be some space to realign some non-urgent projects towards Albay, Catanduanes and other worst affected areas,” House Ways and Means president Joey Sarte Salceda said in a statement.

While supporting the administration’s non-military way of tackling the insurgency problem, Salceda said that “some of the rural development projects under the task force can mitigate” the damage caused by the super typhoon Rolly.

“I support these [NTF-ELCAC] programs, and I am open to discussions on how to adjust them, “said the legislator from Bicolano, whose home province of Albay was among the provinces affected by Rolly, the strongest typhoon this year.

Rolly left about P5.8 billion in infrastructure damage in the Bicol region alone, according to initial estimates from the Department of Public Works and Highways.

ACT Teachers Party roster representative France Castro said that at least a third of the NTF-ELCAC’s proposed 2021 budget should be reallocated to “basic services.”

“If we rechannel only half or a third of the P19.1 billion for NTF-ELCAC, P6.3 billion to P9.5 billion will go a long way in producing self-learning modules,” Castro said.

“Instead of lies, fake news and relentless red labels, and policies and activities that terrorize people into shut up, people’s taxes will be spent for the extreme needs of teachers and students in blended learning mode,” said.

The NTF-ELCAC previously branded Castro’s ACT Teachers Party roster as one of the groups that serves as a front for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.

Castro and five other representatives from the party list skipped a Senate hearing on red labeling where officials from the task force accused them of being members of the communist movement.

Castro and other members of the House Makabayan bloc said the Senate should not give the military a platform to link activists and critics of the government with the communist movement.

Senators from the minority bloc are expected to push for the realignment of the anti-insurgency panel fund next week when the Senate begins addressing the 2021 budget in plenary.

– with a report from RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News