DILG Denies Billions Allocated For Davao Region For 2022 Elections
BILLIONS NOT ALLOCATED FOR DAVAO – Amid allegations, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said anti-insurgency funds allocated for Davao will not be used in the 2022 elections.
Recently, Davao received P4.3 billion out of P16.24 billion as funding for the government’s anti-insurgency campaign. Furthermore, P1.6 billion was for Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown.
However, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict spokesperson Joel Egco said there was no bias in allocating the funds toward the city. He explained that a large percentage of towns in the region used to be under the influence of “communist terrorists”.
Furthermore, he cited how 4 out of 5 guerrilla fronts were conducting operations in the region. As such, the Barangay Development Program used funds to promote projects in previously “communist influenced” barangays.
This included building farm-to-market roads, schools, and livelihood programs. Along with this, DILG acting spokesperson Odilon Pasaraba denied that the funds would be used during the 2022 elections.
There are accountability mechanisms in place. The spending of the funds is managed by the recipient barangays themselves, not the DILG, nor the NTF-ELCAC. That’s to be underscored…
Allegations such as these are clear attempts to discredit the working strategy and the principles involved in this project
Meanwhile, when asked why the DILG has a higher budget for anti-insurgency rather than vaccine procurement, Egco explained that terrorism was a different kind of virus.
This is a virus that has been here for more than 5 decades already. If you’re not going to do something about this now, it might continue on pa…
I don’t think there’s a problem with the prioritization of budget here. The government’s responding very well to the pandemic
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