Swimming in humongous funds

Amid the controversy over the Department of Health and the Procurement Service-Department of the Budget and Management anomalies that were flagged by the Commission on Audit, the issue of the P28.1 billion budget being requested for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) has been lost in the din.

It appears to us that this government is hell-bent on waging war against its own people who are airing grievances over what they see as a lack of government support in their hour of need, and even for simply establishing community pantries as a means to help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Olympic gold medalist Hidilyn Diaz was red-tagged when she asked the private sector for assistance in preparing for the Tokyo Olympics. The people involved in the community pantries were Red-tagged, too. Their only sin was to help the needy amid the pandemic.

But while millions are suffering, those in government are swimming in humongous funds that they allocate for themselves.

The irony of it all is, why is this government waging a war against what it sees as local communists while at the same time cavorting with Communist China?

If the government has not been remiss in its job of looking after the well-being of its people, there will be little protest and few grievances. If there is no corruption in government, there will be fewer poor people in this country. And if the problems mentioned above are nonexistent, there is no need for that white elephant called the NTF-Elcac.

RAMON MAYUGA
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