Congress can call for a special audit of the funds of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said on Wednesday.
Drilon on Tuesday questioned the “speedy” release of the government’s controversial anti-insurgency task force’s P10.68-billion fund under the 2021 national budget following criticisms on its red-tagging activities on organizers of community pantries.
“We can ask for a special audit for this, whether the programs have been submitted or validated,” Drilon said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart.
“In the Senate, we can exercise our oversight functions, I strongly suggest to the Senate that we exercise our oversight functions in order to look into these releases (which) to me, given the times and the needs, is totally inappropriate in terms of this government’s priorities,” he stressed.
According to the opposition leader, he finds the government’s spending priorities questionable considering all that they are asking is to postpone the projects under the NTF-ELCAC and realign the funds to augment the state’s COVID-19 response which is badly needed at the moment.
“To me, I raise the issue of the priorities of the administration. All that we are asking is to postpone the projects under the NTF-ELCAC. Can we not wait until the end of the year and let us address first the hunger that we see and the unemployment that we see today?” Drilon pointed out.
“That is what I question, I am not saying this is illegal. What I am saying is that the appropriateness of such an early release of almost 60 percent of the budget of NTF-ELCAC. It raises the question whether it is deliberately done to defeat any attempt to realign these funds,” he stressed.
The senator intimated the funds could have been used for COVID-19 assistance programs such as the the proposed P8,000 “ayuda” or the P24- billion cash assistance for private sector workers hit by the pandemic, which still remains unfunded.
“The priorities are wrong given the pandemic that we have today. That’s how I would describe it,” he said.
“When you spend in one month’s time P10.6-billion for an anti-insurgency fund versus the need for P8,000 ayuda for the NCR (National Capital Region) workers affected by the lockdown there is no debate as to the priorities that should be followed,” the minority leader stressed.