Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co on Wednesday, November 30 vowed to help restore the 2023 budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) which the Senate and House of Representatives have reduced.
Co, chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, said the House lawmakers who are members of the bicameral conference panel will work with the Senate counterparts to restore the agency’s budget as instructed by House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Deputy Senior Majority Leader Sandro Marcos.
“Congress recognizes the important role the NTF-ELCAC plays to help end the country’s decades-long insurgency. Thus, we will convince our Senate counterparts in the bicameral conference committee to restore the agency’s proposed budget,” Co said.
“After all, this is one of the key priorities of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. which was clearly outlined in the National Expenditure Program the administration sent to Congress,” he said.
At the same time, Co urged the NTF-ELCAC leadership to expedite the implementation of its projects and to explore the possibility of collaborating with agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which are better equipped to execute project procurement and implementation.
Co said he is concerned that for 2021, the NTF-ELCAC has only completed less than half or 48 percent of its projects under its Support for Barangay Development Program (SBDP).
The other half, he noted, is still ongoing, while the remaining two percent (2%) is still in the procurement stage.
“The situation is even worse in 2022. Based on reports received by my office, only two percent of NTF-ELCAC’s 2022 projects have been completed or ongoing. A whopping 98 percent of the projects are still under the pre-procurement or procurement stage, and it’s already December,” he stressed.
The lawmaker also said the NTF-ELCAC should exert more effort to fully utilize the budgets allocated by Congress.
Otherwise, he said the funds would revert back to the national treasury instead of being fully utilized for Filipinos who need more and better social services.
Co insisted the funds are particularly important since it will be distributed to various agencies for administrative and operational expenses in implementing the task force's Barangay Development Program (BDP).
The program is composed of various support projects for communities deemed cleared of insurgency.