Senator Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa has praised the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) for its "successful peace efforts" against communist rebels.
Dela Rosa defended the proposed P1.89-billion 2022 budget for the OPAPP in a budget hearing by the Senate finance sub-committee ‘’G’’ last Thursday.
The P1,891,030,000 is lower by P209,916,000 than the P2,100,946,000 OPAPP appropriations this year.
During the hearing, Dela Rosa cited as an example the implementation of development projects in local areas or communities under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
He said he gets goosebumps whenever he remembers a bloody encounter where he and Galvez, together with two companies of military scout rangers and a company of Special Action Force, were pinned down by a huge number of New People’s Army (NPA) rebels in Sitio Fatima, Barangay Mandug, Davao City. Thirteen soldiers died and many were wounded in the firefight.
“If you (Galvez) can recall, it was Friday the thirteenth wherein thirteen din na tauhan natin ang namatay doon sa lugar na ‘yon (13 of our men died in that area). Naengkwentro ka doon sa lugar and we insisted on reinforcing you (You were in that encounter and we insisted in reinforcing you). ‘Yung nag-reinforce kami ni Lieutenant Indanan, you can just imagine isang kumpanya mo ng Scout Ranger, isang kumpanya ni Lieutenant Indanan na Scout Ranger, and isang kumpanya ko ng PCR SAF na-pin down tayo doon sa lugar sa dami ng kalaban. Sa dami ng NPA (Due to the large number of NPA combatants, a Scout Ranger company of Lieutenant Indanan was pinned down),” the Mindanaoan Senator said.
“The encounter, parang it lasted for a lifetime para sa akin (To me that encounter lasted for a lifetime). Nagsimula ng madaling araw, natapos tayo, naka-withdraw tayo siguro hapon na sir, no? Mga alas kwatro, alas tres o alas kwatro ng hapon (The firefight started at dawn and ended at three or four in the afternoon),” he further said.
Dela Rosa said Sitio Fatima is now "NPA-free" and the residents are living in peace, adding that the improvement of the community is because of government development projects.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon had sought to defund the NTF-E:LCAC which has a proposed P28 billion appropriations in the P4.5 trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) because the appropriation is needed more for the government’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
But Dela Rosa, a former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief, defended the NTF-ELCAC saying its social programs in communist insurgents’ ‘’territories’’ helped bring peace in these areas.
Meanwhile, Makabayan bloc solons have filed House Resolution 2226 urging the House of Representatives to look into cases of union intervention and forced disaffiliation allegedly committed by NTF-ELCAC.
The bloc claimed that several unions experienced sustained threats and intimidation from state operatives who demanded that they cut ties with "communist front organizations."
The agents, according to the bloc’s resolution, also threatened that unionists will be slapped with trumped-up charges of terrorism if they did not cooperate.