People’s taxes are the funds that need to be made transparent and not the amounts of money being donated to community pantries, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said on Tuesday.
“Those are private funds; not our taxes; that’s where we need transparency because that’s our money,” Locsin said in a tweet.
Locsin was commenting on the calls for Ana Patricia Non, the woman behind the Maginhawa community pantry, to account for the donations that she is getting to fund the operations of her drive to provide food for those who are in need during the pandemic.
Last week, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy drew flak from various sectors after she asked donors of the Maginhawa community pantry to seek for a “clear accounting” of how their funds were used.
Badoy, who is also the spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), earlier claimed that Non is a “member of the underground mass organization ARMAS. (Artista at Manunulat ng Sambayanan) that believes in the violent overthrow of government.”
In a video interview posted on Twitter, Non asked her critics not to expect too much from her as an individual who manages the entire operation of the community pantry. The Maginhawa community pantry has triggered a nationwide movement that made headlines both here and abroad, portraying the Filipino's bayanihan tradition and the culture of giving especially during crisis like the curent pandemic that left thousands of people jobless.
Non told her critics not to employ “double standards” and should instead demand accountability and transparency from the government in order to “set an example”.
In a separate tweet, Locsin also praised the growing number of people setting up community pantries and food banks such as the one in Barangay Sta. Cruz in Makati City where a person is seen distributing vegetables to people seeking food relief.
“Every day of decency keeps crass stupidity at bay, the DFA secretary said.