De Lima backs Drilon's call for special audit of NTF-ELCAC funds

Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has backed Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon's call on the Commission on Audit (CoA) to conduct a special audit of the funds given to the government's anti-communist insurgency task force following Malacañang's reported plan to double its funding to P40 billion in the 2022 National Budget.

De Lima said the proposal to double the 2022 budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) "is plain and simple budget predation by the Duterte regime to be used as a campaign war chest in the coming 2022 national elections."

"Hindi na nga nagamit nang maayos ang P19.2 bilyong pondo para sa 2021, gusto pang doblehin sa P40 bilyon sa 2022. Anong gagawin sa pondo, ipambibili ng boto? Baon na ang gobyerno sa utang, gusto pang huthutan pang-kampanya ang kaban ng bayan!," De Lima said in her Dispatch from Crame No. 1113.

"I join Sen. Frank Drilon's call for a special audit on the budget spending of the notorious NTF-ELCAC, and the shameless move of Malacañang to further allocate an enormous P40 billion worth of funds for its 2022 budget, in spite of the worst health crisis and deep budget deficit that the nation is facing," she added.

Drilon bared that sources from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) disclosed to him an alleged plan to increase the NTF-ELCAC's budget to as much as P40 billion next year.

De Lima, a social justice and human rights champion, said the senseless program "should be thrown in Duterte's wastebasket," saying that it is an utter waste of the national budget to replenish NTF-ELCAC billions of precious funds for 2022.

"Malinaw na tadtad ng anomalya ang NTF-ELCAC sa naging paggasta nito ng pondo ayon na rin sa report ng COA. Wala ring ginawang matino ang programang iyan kundi maghasik ng lagim at takot sa publiko dahil kung sino-sino na lang ang inaakusahang komunista," she said.

"Klasik talaga ang pagka-trapo nitong si Ginoong Duterte. Igigisa at igigisa n'ya talaga sa sariling mantika ang mga Pilipino. Kakamkamin ang kabuhayan nila, at magbabalik ng barya-barya upang maisiguro ang isa pang termino," she added.

The lady Senator from Bicol said that ultimately, the national funds belong to the Filipinos and should be used to help them survive the pandemic, not to secure more years in power for Duterte, his minions and their foreign masters.