Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara yesterday said that the Senate contingent to the 2023 national budget bicameral conference committee is ready to negotiate with the House of Representatives in adjusting the appropriation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for next year.
Angara, who is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, said that “we are certainly willing to work with the House for any upward adjustments” on the proposed budget of the anti-insurgency body.
“Kami, wala (We [in the Senate] did not make any cuts),” Angara said, pointing out that it was not the Senate that slashed the proposed P10 billion budget of the NTF-ELCAC.
Last October, the House slashed by half the P10 billion proposed budget of the NTF-ELCAC, while the Senate version of the 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) showed the task force was allotted P6.9 billion.
This year, the NTF-ELCAC has a budget of P5.624 billion, while it got P16.44 billion in 2021.
Ako partylist Rep. Elizaldy Co on Wednesday said the House contingent in the bicameral panel will push for the restoration of the P10 billion recommended by the Executive branch for the NTF-ELCAC.
“The Senate did not slash any amount from the program… But what is important (now) is nag-decide (they have decided) to restore that (P10 billion budget),” Angara said.
During the budget briefings last October, Angara directed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to provide details on NTF-ELCAC’s programs, activities, and plans after Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III noted that the P10 billion allocation lacked details.
Angara said the DBM only identified the agency’s programs that were still the implementation stages, which falls under the DBM’s Special Purpose Funds (SPF).
Angara said the vague items in the proposed NTF-ELCAC budget for 2023 can be considered as “pork funds.”
“It’s pork barrel based on the definition of the Supreme Court because when you pass the GAA (General Appropriations Act) there must be identification of projects as much as possible,” he has said.
Sen. Nancy Binay, also during the budget briefings, said the NTF-ELCAC has not even used 50 percent of its budget allocation in 2021, pointing out that of the P16.44 billion budget, there are only around P2.9 billion worth of ongoing projects, and some P3.2 billion worth of completed projects.
