(Eagle News) – Funds from the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, or 4Ps, meant to benefit the country’s poor, have been discovered in a camp of the communist rebel group, the New People’s Army (NPA).
President Rodrigo Duterte himself bared this in a speech on Tuesday, when he said that the Pantawid Pamilya funds, still inside the envelopes, were found inside one NPA camp.
“They recovered from an NPA camp envelopes containing the Pantawid,” Duterte said, referring to the government’s 4Ps program funds.
Fuelled by one of the world’s starkest rich-poor divides, a Maoist rebellion that began months before the first human landed on the moon plods on even though the country now boasts one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. / AFP PHOTO / Noel CELIS
Duterte said his only concern is that these funds should go to Filipinos who will use the government funds to buy food or other family needs, and not to buy bullets and firearms that will be used against government forces.
He thus had this message to the communist leadership.
“Let me be very clear,” he said.
“To the Communists: You listen. I don’t care if the recipient was a poor NPA member or a poor law-abiding citizen. They both need food. Just don’t buy bullets and firearms.”
The President did not give further details but admitted there had been reports about this before.
He said that he does not care if funds meant for the poor reach the hands of NPA members, but that this should not be used for the wrong purpose.
Taguiwalo makes clarification
Former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) secretary Judy Taguiwalo had earlier clarified and denied reports linking her to this diversion of 4Ps funds. She denied that the bulk of DSWD funds for the 4Ps program went to the NPA.
“For the record and for the President’s own awareness, not a single peso of the 4Ps program passed through my hands,” Taguiwalo said in an earlier statement.
She said the funds were coursed through Land Bank of the Philippines directly, as well as to its conduits, which then made direct payouts to 4Ps beneficiaries.
She said the transactions were recorded and that the Commission on Audit (COA) made regular audits of the program.
“These transactions are recorded and COA regularly audits this program,” Taguiwalo said.
Duterte also said he did not believe that Taguiwalo had anything to do with this, and that he still believed in the former DSWD’s integrity and capability.
“Hindi galing sa akin ‘yun sabi na ginamit ‘yung pera ni Taguiwalo. We did not… Dumating ‘yun sa kamay ng congressman sa mga—well… from the military maybe. But hindi galing sa akin ‘yun. Otherwise, I would not have re-appointed and re-appointed her,” he said in a speech in Malacanang.
(Eagle News Service)