Opposition Rep. Ferdinand Gaite of Bayan Muna slammed on Monday, May 31, the PDP-Laban’s resolution to convince President Rodrigo Duterte to run for vice president and choose his candidate for president.
Gaite also chided the ruling party for calling for additional funding for the controversial National Task Froce to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). The NTF-ELCAC received P19 billion in funding for the current year.
”It’s definitely a way for Duterte to elude accountability for all his misdeeds, for all his crimes against the Filipino people. It's an escape plan,” noted Gaite in a press statement.
“He (Duterte) knows the people would seek justice and accountability for the extrajudicial killings, attacks on press freedom, attacks against government critics, the botched handling of the pandemic, and all of his other misdeeds, so he must cling to power as long as he can so that he could escape the sword of justice. Talagang magkakapit-tuko iyan sa pwesto para protektahan ang kanyang sarili," Gaite said.
Duterte, PDP-Laban chairman, called for the holding of the national council meeting of the party in Cebu City on Monday.
Apparently unaware of Duterte’s move, acting president and Senator Manny Pacquiao called on party leaders to ignore the invitation made by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, party vice chairman.
According to Pacquiao the party rules indicate that he should have been informed about the plan.
Duterte, through Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, confirmed that it was his decision to call the meeting.
Also in the meeting, the PDP-Laban officials passed a resolution calling for the “retention and expansion of the Barangay Development Fund of NTF-ELCAC amid calls from both the Lower House and the Senate to defund the agency for allegedly engaging “red-tagging” personalities that have been critical of the Duterte administration.
Gaite said the move is an apparent political strategy to use the fund to finance the party’s 2022 campaign.
"Talagang pinatunayan nito ang hinala ng maraming mambabatas noon pang budget hearings na gagamitin itong bilyon-bilyong pondo ng NTF-ELCAC para sa makinarya ng Administrasyong Duterte sa darating na halalan. (This only confirms the suspicion of many lawmakers during the budget hearings that the NTF-ELCAC will use the billions of funds to boost the Duterte administration’s political machinery),” Gaite claimed.
“Now Duterte's party mates are asking for their own pieces of the pie, and NTF-ELCAC would serve as the administration's conduit to siphon public funds to their electoral machinery," stated the opposition solon.