đź“·DOST Secretary Renato Solidum Jr.
BELIEVE it or not, an agency specializing in rocket science at other modern-day inventions has been tapped to run after communist insurgents.
No less than Department of Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum made the disclosure during the House committee deliberations on the proposed DOST budget for 2025.
Solidum noted that DOST’s inclusion in the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) took place under the present administration.
“In reality, it’s not really very clear to me” what the DOST is supposed to contribute to the task force,” said Solidum in reference to the government agency notoriously famous for “red-tagging.”
Solidum told legislators that it was “likely” the agency was “tapped” to help communities prioritized by the task force for disaster management, environmental protection, health and nutrition, and education.
“We do have projects, whether they’re here or there; whatever (the beneficiaries’) beliefs are, we assist them,” added Solidum in response to Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel.
“We have various programs, especially community empowerment through science and technology, so I think they needed us to look into how we could help further improve those communities we were already serving,” Solidum continued.
According to the DOST chief, a letter was sent last year by Año in his capacity as national security adviser and NTF-ELCAC chair.
The letter, he added, informed him about DOST’s inclusion in the government’s anti-insurgency body.
Solidum however told the panel that he had yet to attend any of its meetings.
“So it was not the DOST that volunteered to be part of the task force?” Manuel asked. “Is it more that the DOST was tapped?”
“The letter was sent to me asking if we could be a member,” Solidum replied.
Manuel raised the matter after Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chair Prospero de Vera III last week also confirmed that his agency had also been included in the task force to help it “disseminate information in universities and colleges.”
Manuel then took a swipe at the NTF-ELCAC for concealing the amendments to Executive Order No. 70, which was issued during the Duterte administration to create the task force.
“So what is happening is that it appears that the selection of which agencies will be part of the task force is arbitrary or highly discretionary,” Manuel said.
Alarmed over recent revelations of the NTF-ELCAC’s purported “expansion,” members of the Makabayan bloc urged Congress to defund the government’s anti-red task force.
He and the other Makabayan bloc members—ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro and Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas have long been calling for NTF-ELCAC’s “defunding.”
Stripped budget, the militant group then called for a realigment of its fund to“genuine” social welfare programs or those not tied to what they called the “militarization” of communities rife with poverty and social injustice.
Aside from the DOST and CHEd, the Department of Migrant Workers was among the last agencies to be included in the task force. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
