KUMBINSIDO si Senador Franklin Drilon na ang mungkahing P16.4 bilyong pondong panlaban sa komunistang grupo ay gagamitin lang sa “election year” sa susunod na taon.

“Let’s be candid. Next year is an election year and here is a secretariat who will be playing God to the requests of  the barangays. When you have a system like this, it can be clearly used for political purposes especially that 2021 is an election year,” ratsada ni Drilon sa isinagawang Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) briefing  hinggil sa mungkahing P4.5-trilyong badyet para sa 2021.

Ang P16.4 bilyon ay pondo ng Barangay Development Program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed  Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Ang NTF-ELCAC ay nasa ilalim ng Office of the President (OP).

Idiniin ni Drilon na: “I call a spade a spade. I am being candid with you. I am not new in this bureaucracy.

When you  have an office, not a regular line agency but just somebody or a task force, who will be approving and disapproving  the requests of barangays, you can imagine the political favors that can be done out of this system.”

Para kay Drilon, malaking katanungan kung bakit bibigyan ng P16.4 bilyong pera ang isang task force ng OP na ang totoong layunin ay gamitin lamang ito sa ‘pangangampanya’ para sa mga kandidato ng administrasyong Duterte gamit ang  kampanya laban sa komunistang grupo.

Nagtataka rin ang mambabatas kung bakit higit itong malaki, gayong hindi naman isang “line agency” ang NTF-ELCAC kumpara sa mungkahing badyet ng Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) na P15.9 bilyon, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) na P7.4 bilyon, Department of Tourism (DOT) na P3.5 bilyon at Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) na P5.5 bilyon.

Tanong ni Drilon, Is the communist insurgency a bigger threat than our high unemployment, the loss of jobs of our  OFWs, the shutdown of our entire tourism industry and the closure of tens of thousands of small businesses?” (NELSON S. BADILLA)