Some senators are now considering to slash the budget of the government's anti-insurgency task force over its red-tagging of community pantry organizers, justified by its spokesperson by comparing the volunteers to "Satan's apple".
In apparent disappointment over its persistent red-tagging of community pantries, Senator Joel Villanueva on Wednesday, April 21, called on his colleagues in Congress to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
"Oh my! We should move to defund NTF-ELCAC in the next budget. Sayang lang pera ng taong bayan (They are only a waste of people's money)," Villanueva said on Twitter Wednesday night, in reaction to NTF-ELCAC spokesman Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade's statement in an interview that Ana Patricia Non, who initiated the Quezon City community pantry that has been replicated in several areas of the country, is "same with Satan".
"Reallocate the current P19-billion budget for ayuda (assistance). Mas kailangan ito ng taumbayan kaysa sa mga ganitong kalokohan (People need it more than this nonsense)!" he added, further writing the hashtags: "Support Community Pantry", "Support Bayanihan", and "No To Red-Tagging".
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian supported this, replying: "I agree, bro. If these are the kind of people who will spend hard earned taxpayer's money, then it's not worth it."
"Yes, lets do it, brother," Villanueva responded.
Netizens agreed with the plan, some of them appealing to the two lawmakers to make good on their social media pronouncements in their deliberations of the annual national budget.
Senator Nancy Binay, in an interview with CNN Philippines, also said that it is high-time to look into the budget of NTF-ELCAC for next year.
"Budget season is coming, I will really make sure that we'll be addressing the budget for the NTF-ELCAC. Maybe, it's high-time that we really review their budget," Binay said Wednesday.
"For me, we should all concentrate on how we will survive this pandemic. The priority should not be about red-tagging or the communist problem. We should prioritize our response with this pandemic," she added.
Congress has appropriated a ₱19-billion budget for the NTF-ELCAC for 2021, ₱16.4 billion of which to be spent for its development programs for barangays (villages) cleared of communist insurgency.
During last year's budget deliberations, some lawmakers, mostly from the opposition, had called for the realignment of the task force's budget to programs responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, calamities, and other urgent needs of the country.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon raised the concern that the funds would be used “in aid of the 2022 elections.”
But the proposal was outvoted, with the Senate and the House of Representatives retaining the P19-billion NTF-ELCAC fund in the final version of the 2021 national budget that they ratified last December.
The community pantry intiated by Non -- which inspired over 300 donation-driven efforts in the country -- has become the NTF-ELCAC's new subject in its anti-communist campaign on social media.
This earned the ire of the public, including government officials, lawmakers, and human rights advocates, as the red-tagging and profiling of volunteers resulted in the temporarily halt of the community pantries for fear of their safety.
And while Malacañang already told the task force to "leave the community pantries alone", Parlade, in an interview by One News on Tuesday, April 20, insisted on his claim that the initiative was part of a "strategy".
“Isang tao lang ‘yan ‘di ba? Si Ana, si Patricia. Same with Satan. Si Satan binigyan ng apple si Eve. Doon lang nagsimula ‘yon (She did it alone right)? That Ana Patricia? same with Satan. Satan gave an apple to Eve. It started from there)," the military official said even as he admitted having little knowledge of Non and that they have yet to substantiate their beliefs.
Non earlier said she not a part of any communist group.