Is it about CIF or the votes?

Is it about CIF or the votes? | Daily Tribune

Some members of the House of Representatives are going gaga over the results of the recent survey showing President Bongbong Marcos and VP Inday Sara Duterte shedding six and 12 percentage points, respectively.

This was after the barrage of attacks centered on VP Sara by the CPP-NPA-NDF legal fronts over the Confidential and Intelligence Funds issue.

Pampanga 3rd district Rep. Aurelio "Dong" Gonzales Jr., who replaced Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Senior Deputy Speaker, opined that a recent survey was a referendum on whether Filipinos supported the House of Representatives' realignment of confidential funds.

He, of course, could not hide his glee over the additional six-percentage points in Speaker Martin Romualdez's rating.

The CIF referred to was in the proposed budgets for the office of the Vice President and the Department of Education.

Akbayan Sen. Risa Hontiveros, ACT Teachers Rep. Frances Castro, and other House critics zeroed in on VP Sara even though there were other government agencies whose proposed CIFs were also realigned.

As if they were not contented with the veiled political agenda in the CIF issue, the critics went over the fence of the HoR and took a jab at how Davao City spent its intelligence funds.

Senator Hontiveros, on her own, went for the kill but, in the process, exposed her gross ignorance. She raged over what she claimed were huge intelligence funds allocated to the Davao City government.

She assailed the local government officials, saying their confidential and intelligence funds were even larger than Makati City's.

"Ano ba ang mayroon sa (Just what do they have in) Davao City?" she smirked.

Hontiveros was not aware that Davao City was bigger than Metro Manila. She ignored the fact that vicious CPP-NPA terrorists had once nested in the city and converted it into the "killing field" of the Philippines.

She was oblivious to the fact that local and foreign extremist terrorists and secessionist fronts had targeted the city. The Davao Cathedral and its air and seaports had been the targets of deadly bombings by terror squads.

When Rodrigo Duterte was elected mayor, the city invested heavily in intelligence gathering.

The challenge was Herculean as the city faced various terror fronts. When Sara took over the helm of the city government, she continued to cleanse the city of the tenacious CPP/NPA terrorists and criminal syndicates.

To assist the Philippine National Police in Davao City, the local government augmented its capabilities by donating patrol vehicles and establishing the 911 network supported by ambulances and high-definition CCTV cameras.

The same assistance was given to the Davao Task Force. The city maintained an important component in its intelligence network — "tripping points" posted at the porous boundaries of the city that monitor the entry of suspicious characters.

The PNP regional office and the Davao City Police Office should speak up and not watch akimbo while the commie fronts spread lies and belittle the gains that had been achieved in liberating the city and, later, the entire Davao Region from the clutches of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army terrorists.

What did Hontiveros and the likes of Castro know about these things? On the other hand, they must have known how Davao City effectively used its intelligence funds and its impact on their political careers and the disintegration and surrender of NPA armed combatants all over the country. The terrorists had effectively lost control and influence over their erstwhile mass base and, consequently, the "command votes."

Is Hontiveros aware that the crime rate in Makati is 39.04 percent as against 18 percent in Davao City? Is she aware that while she repudiates Davao for its management of its CIF, the city has become the most livable place in the Philippines?

The ire of the CPP-NPA-NDF terrorists stemmed from the fact that the prudent application of Davao City's intelligence funds led to the dismantling and eventual defeat of the New People's Army in the city and later in the Davao Region.

Representative Castro herself and several ACT teachers were unmasked during many raids conducted by the AFP and PNP, and participated in by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which VP Sara co-chairs. The facts can be Googled.

Admittedly, the 12 percent in the survey thought the Dutertes had squandered the intelligence funds. But they will eventually come face to face with truth and reality. Davao City's economic growth and development, stable peace, and healthy investment climate eloquently argue against the detractors of VP Sara. There will always be a judgment day after the survey. When the celebration and maddening festivities of the detractors had ebbed, they will realize that VP Sara Duterte's 70 percent indicates she still enjoys the highest trust rating among the top government officials, as the survey showed.