FILE PHOTO: Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon is finding it unusual that the allocation for the Department of National Defense (DND) from the 2021 budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) was only P199,000.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 unusual. Really unusual鈥� I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 fair and equitable,鈥� Drilon said during the plenary debates on the budget of the DND鈥檚 proposed 2022 budget.
鈥淚 cannot believe that the agency in charge of our internal security will get only P199,000,鈥� he added.
In 2021, the NTF-Elcac received a P19-billion budget, over P16 billion of which is allotted for the development of barangays that the government declares as cleared of insurgency.
According to Senator Ronald 鈥淏ato鈥� dela Rosa, the sponsor of DND鈥檚 proposed 2022 budget,聽the P199,000 was lodged under the Office of the Secretary of National Defense.
This, after Drilon questioned why the DND has yet to disburse a 鈥渟ingle peso鈥� of the NTF-Elcac funds given to it in 2021鈥攚hich he initially thought amounted to P199 million.
鈥淣TF-ELCAC funds are P199,000 only. And it is broken down into P90,000 for local travel and P109,000 for representation,鈥� Dela Rosa explained.
鈥淚t is true that it鈥檚 not yet fully obligated and fully disbursed because kayang-kaya naman nila itong i-obligate within the remaining months, the P90,000 and the P109,000,鈥� he added.
鈥榃rong鈥� priorities
At this point, Drilon asked Dela Rosa to double-check the amount. But the latter reaffirmed that only P199,000 was given to the DND from the 2021 NTF-Elcac budget.
鈥淏ecause hindi naman sila gagawa ng mga barangay development programs, ang kanilang ano lang naman is coordination purposes, so ang kailangan lang nila ay pamasahe. Domestic travel that is why 190,000 lang ang ina-allocate para sa kanila,鈥� Dela Rosa told Drilon.
But the Senate minority leader said this should not be the case, pointing out that the engineering unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) can be tapped for the construction of roads in areas influenced by insurgents.
鈥淚 totally disagree. The engineering corps of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is the one of the most sought after units for purposes of building roads in NPA (New People鈥檚 Army)-infested areas. May kakayahan po sila kaya hindi po ako naniniwala na ito鈥檡 para sa coordination lamang,鈥� Drilon said.
鈥淎nyway, if that is the position taken by the sponsor, I cannot be more popish than the pope for the principal agency in charge of our internal security鈥nly gets less than 200,000. Talagang sa akin po, mali ang priorities,鈥� he added.
鈥淲e should support these efforts of AFP as they have the capacity to execute these projects in cleared barangays. And yet they are only given 199,000,鈥� he further said.
In response, Dela Rosa said the DND leadership will submit a written explanation relative to the department鈥檚 share in the NTF-Elcac funds.
鈥淚鈥檓 sorry, Mr. Sponsor, no amount of explanation will convince me that this is a fair and equitable allocation of resources for the principal agency involved in our internal security, you would have 199,000,鈥� Drilon continued.
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