MANILA – Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., spokesperson of the country’s anti-insurgency task force lashed back at senators who wanted to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
“Sila ang stupid kung ito’y binabawi nila. Sila ang pumirma niyan. Ngayon ide-defund nila?,” Parlade told CNN’s Balitaan on Thursday.
The senators should know for themselves that the task force’s P19 billion budget in 2021 is allocated for the barangay development program, he said.
Parlade drew flak when he compared the community pantries to an apple that Satan offered to Eve on Wednesday.
After his statement, senators Joel Villanueva and Sherwin Gatchalian brought up the idea of defunding NTF-ELCAC and allocate its funds to those affected by the pandemic.
Instead of defunding the group, Sen. Vicente Sotto III said that replacing the “irresponsible” officials of the agency is the best solution.
“I believe the NTF-ELCAC program is good. Defunding it would give back the gains of [government] to the rebels,” Sotto said. “We should not be hasty in blaming a good program because of irresponsible statements from some officials.”/PN
