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Angara quizzes DBM on unidentified projects under NTF-ELCAC: Sen. Sonny Angara, Committee on Finance chairperson, presides over the hearing on the proposed 2023 budgets of the Department of Budget and Management (P1.8 billion), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (P4.4 billion) and various allocations under the Special Purpose Funds Thursday, October 6, 2022. During the hearing, Angara urged DBM officials to apply the same standards applied to all other funds in reviewing the proposed P10-billion Support to Barangay Development Program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for fiscal year 2023. Angara’s question stemmed from the inquiry of Sen. Nancy Binay and the admission of Budget Usec. Tina Rose Marie Canda that projects under the NTF-ELCAC were identified only during the implementation phase. “… It’s a pork barrel based on the definition of the Supreme Court because when you pass the GAA (General Appropriations Act), there must be an identification of project as much as possible… Is there no way to improve the program in that sense, from a budgetary standpoint? The standards you apply to different funds, should also be applied to them [NTF-ELCAC],” Angara said. In response, Canda said DBM provided NTF-ELCAC “some leeway” in the identification of projects because of the intent of the fund. Angara, while expressing his inclination to support the programs of NTF-ELCAC, asked DBM to provide a detailed report on the implementation of the programs. (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)