Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, who expressed support for community pantries, on Wednesday criticized National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson Lorraine Badoy for alleging that community pantries have links with the communists.
Belmonte said that “helping your fellow men” and “doing Christian duties” are far from “overthrowing the government.”
“Ang layo naman ng leap (There’s a great leap of analogy), from helping your fellow man doing Christian duty, following the values taught to us by the Church, whatever religion we belong to, doon sa (to) overthrowing the government. Ang layo nya,” she said in an ANC interview.
“And in fact, nagugulat ako na meron silang ganitong statement kasi (In fact, I’m surprised by their statements because) the ELCAC has been working with the local government and the barangays,” she added.
Badoy had earlier claimed that some community pantries, particularly those that were recently covered by the media, are being exploited by the communists to make people believe the government is “inutile.”
“Tigilan nyo ang modus operandi nyo na nakadikit sa framework at doktrina ng CPP-NPA-NDF nang pag-package ng communist propaganda bilang serbisyo sa taong bayan at ang pagdugtong dito ng kasinungalingan na walang ginagawa at inutil ang gobyerno (Stop your modus operandi that’s attached to the framework and doctrine of the CPP-NPA-NDF or communist propaganda that’s packaged as public service),” Badoy said in a statement posted on her Facebook page.
According to Belmonte, she was surprised to learn that NTF-ELCAC issued such an allegation when the task force has “been lecturing” local government units “to know, to be able to distinguish the signs of…impending insurgency.”
“There's a spectrum that they've told us about that there's a difference between armed insurgency wanting to overthrow the government which is one end of the spectrum, and then the other end is you can speak your mind out,” she said.
Belmonte maintained community pantries need no permits as they are not commercial activities as long as health protocols and city ordinances are observed and followed.
She also assured Ana Patricia Non, whose pantry sparked the emergence of at least 300 community pantries across the country, of safety and support from the local government.