Five senators on Monday filed a resolution seeking to determine if the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict’s (NTF-ELCAC) is still effective in fulfilling its mandate.
Under Senate Resolution 707, Senators Nancy Binay, Grace Poe, Sherwin Gatchalian, Joel Villanueva and Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto asked the appropriate Senate committee to review the performance of the agency, including its programs, projects, activities, and budget utilization.
The review, they said, would also determine if the agency’s P19.1 billion appropriation for 2021 should be used instead to help address the needs of Filipinos during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The agency came under fire after its spokespersons, Army Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade and Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, sought to smear organizers of community pantries as communists.
Parlade later said that senators seeking to defund the agency were “stupid.”
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon filed a separate resolution censuring Parlade for his disrespectful, derogatory and demeaning statements against senators after being criticized for his persistent and unjustified red tagging of civilians.
By late Monday, 12 senators had already signed Drilon’s resolution.
Malacanang said it supports the gag order against Parlade and Badoy.
In a press briefing, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Palace supports National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.’s gag order on both Parlade and Badoy.
“We welcome the community spirit of these community pantries. We are asking all our officials to be careful with what they’re saying; they need to widen their perspectives,” Roque said.
Badoy insisted there was no gag order on her or Parlade, who were merely told to stop commenting on community pantries.
“The clear guidance was to simply cease making comments about the community pantry now that we both got our message to the Filipino people across and done our duty,” Badoy said.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III continued to resist calls from his colleagues to defund NTF-ELCAC.
“All because we do not like certain personalities? Parlade and Badoy are not the NTF ELCAC. Now if the program is not working, then we can assess that in the budget hearings,” Sotto said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson said a temporary gag order on Parlade was not “the appropriate response.”
In the first place, as an active member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he said Parlade “cannot be appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the government,” according to the Constitution.
Lacson said the Armed Forces and the Defense department should have heeded the call of the Senate to immediately recall Parlade back to the AFP.
“He should be censured for dabbling in politics instead of just focusing on his inherent mission as commanding general of the Southern Luzon Command – that is, to fight threats such as terrorism and insurgency,” Lacson said.
In other developments:
* Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas on Monday accused the NTF-ELCAC of reviving the pork barrel system through its Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP). Citing data Data from the Department of Budget and Management website, Brosas, nominee of the Gabriela Women’s Party said SAROs worth P9.66 billion have been released to the program for unspecified projects, which would be implemented by the provincial government, or national government agencies including the AFP Engineer Brigade. “Instead of asking community pantry organizers to provide an accounting of how donations were spent, the red-tagging task force must provide details on how the P9.66-billion in SAROs are intended to be used, especially as the amounts are highly questionable,” Brosas said.
* An activist youth organization Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) welcomed on Monday the gag order issued by Esperon but said this was not enough to redress the blemishing of the reputation of those who initiated community pantries. The group pointed out how Parlade and Badoy have committed grave abuse beyond their respective mandates. “It is totally unacceptable that peoples’ taxes are spent on these shameless imbeciles,” said John Lazaro, the group’s national coordinator and spokesperson. With Willie Casas