ACT Teachers Representative France Castro is unhappy with the House approval of the Office of the Vice President’s proposed P2.3-billion budget for 2024.
She is not particularly in favor of the P500-million intelligence fund in the budget.
She argued that ex-VP Leni Robredo’s budget proposal did not have an item for intelligence, ergo incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte should, conversely, not be entitled.
Well, Castro should not equate the intelligence of Leni with Inday Sara’s. The latter had literally faced the terror and menace of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, or CPP-NPA, during her term as mayor of Davao City.
In particular, the incumbent Vice President knows firsthand how ACT teachers in the Davao region operate and conduct a bizarre curriculum in Salugpungan schools in Davao del Norte and Davao de Oro, which cater to children of indigenous peoples.
Was it in 2018 when France Castro and then Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo were detained and charged with herding and transporting IP children from Talaingod town in Davao del Norte to a Salugpungan school in Maco, Davao de Oro?
Two years later, 99 IP children were rescued from UCCP Haran in Davao City, which, for some time, was being paraded as a temporary shelter for displaced IPs from various Davao region provinces and other parts of Mindanao.
ACT teachers denounced the raid on what they claimed was a “sanctuary” for displaced IPs.
The rescued children of indigenous tribes, however, related a different story after they were reunited with their families.
The government filed cases against those behind the operation of Haran, which was later found to be a leftist indoctrination center.
I am citing these to understand where Rep. France Castro is coming from and why the OVP needs the intelligence fund.
The former VP was oblivious to what the Makabayan coalition and the communist terror groups were doing, thus, the absence of the fund.
Since Robredo’s budget had no intelligence fund, France Castro thinks VP Sara’s budget should not include any. My mother-in-law has a repartee to such childish logic — “Ano ka hilo?”
And who was it who said, “First time sa kasaysayan na may opisyal na nagpadala ng video sa (in our history we have an official who sent a video to the) United Nations para siraan ang ating bansa. Nasaan ang kanyang (to defame our country. Where is her) patriotism, love of country?” Was it not former House Speaker Bebot Alvarez venting about his plan to impeach Robredo?
Therein lies the difference between Sara, who fights for her country, and Leni.
Furthermore, Vice President Inday Sara is co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
Ex-VP Leni, during her term, was doing something else. NTF-ELCAC has been exceedingly successful as an adjunct of the Armed Forces of the Philippines campaign against the Red army.
As I write this piece, several regions nationwide have been declared insurgent-free. This development is a death knell for the legal fronts of the CPP-NPA-NDF. The Makabayan coalition has lost its bastions.
There will be a time when the government will have no more use for intelligence funds. For now, however, that budget must stay.
Understandably, the likes of France Castro will continue to denounce it in the halls of Congress, no matter how her discourse has become a pipsqueak.
Last Monday, the Senate Committee on Finance also approved the OVP budget proposal for 2024, including the P500 million intelligence and surveillance fund.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros attempted to derail the measure by inquiring what the intel funds were for, a rather odd and inordinate query. However, VP Sara gave a specific example for the senator’s education.