Presidential Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy has no right to call for an accounting of donations in community pantries as these, unlike government funds, are private initiatives, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Monday, April 26.

Gatchalian issued the comment after Badoy was given a gag order by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) to refrain from attacking community pantry organizers.

"Usec. Badoy has no business, and no right to demand on the accountability in so far as a community pantry is concerned...This is a purely private matter," Gatchalian said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

Organizers, he said, should be left accountable to their donors, noting that donors, anyway "will not give to people they don't know."

"So let them operate on its own. Government cannot step in to this manner because it's none of our business. It's a private matter," he pointed out.

Former Commission on Audit (COA) head Heidi Mendoza also gave Badoy a lecture about her call for an accounting of the funds given to community pantries.

"Private funds are freely given, unlike public funds which are usually imposed upon citizenry," Mendoza said in a Facebook post Saturday, April 24.

"Madam, bago ka po humingi ng (before you ask for an) accounting for funds given to community pantry, be ready to submit an accounting of your discreationary funds...Now kami naman ang mag-ca-call para gawin niyong public 'yong accounting niyo (we are asking you to make public your accounting of your anti-insurgency funds)," she told Badoy.

Badoy, who also acts as NTF-ELCAC's spokesperson along with controversial Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., last week called on donors to demand a "clear accounting" of their donations to "make sure it goes where you want to go".

Like Parlade, she, too, accused Ana Patricia Non -- who initiated the donation-driven effort that has spread throughout the country -- of having links to communist rebels. Non already dismissed this claim.

"Undersecretary Badoy should also be very careful with her statements because she stands to represent an agency who's given a huge amount of money to fight the insurgency. We cannot use that sum of money to hear lies and abuse people or red tag people without any basis," Gatchalian said.

Several senators are seeking to realign the NTF-ELCAC’s P19-billion funding to augment the government’s COVID-19 response.

Of the amount, P16.4-billion is supposed to be used for the task force’s local government development program where barangays (villages) that are deemed cleared of communist rebels would be given P20-million to spend for infrastructure projects.

"I have to emphasize, this is also a question of trust. Trust among those who are implementing the program. And if you have the likes of General Parlade herding lies and accusations without any basis," Gatchalian said.