In light of the budget deliberations on the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) in the House of Representatives last Tuesday, Rep. Raymond “Mong” Palatino today said that the P291 million OPAPP budget for “subsidies and donations” to conflict-afflicted areas is a questionable peace program which does not have a clear set of guidelines and criteria. He added that the program is inattentive to the roots of poverty and social unrest much like the controversial Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“The P291 million budget of the OPAPP for subsidies and donations to conflict-afflicted communities does not follow a clear set of guidelines and criteria, making it a questionable budget allocation that may be dangerously used for something antithetical to peacebuilding. I also cannot help but take it as a copycat of the CCT progam in that both are inattentive to the roots of poverty and social unrest,” Palatino said.

For 2012, the OPAPP is proposed to receive a total budget of P569.64 million. In the P329.34 million budget of the OPAPP for the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (peaceful and resilient communities) or Pamana program, a huge bulk of P291 million is placed under “subsidies and donations”, a budget description which Palatino said was made more questionable by OPAPP’s failure to provide a clear-cut plan for its implementation.

“It is inadmissible that there is no program menu for OPAPP’s Pamana program. We have to be very specific with how we plan to spend government funds. OPAPP is especially crucial given its mandate to promote just and lasting peace,” Palatino said.

The Pamana program is an OPAPP-led inter-agency project which aims to carry out poverty reduction interventions in conflict-afflicted areas in the countryside.

Pamana program’s total proposed budget of P1.9 billion for 2012 will be shared among the OPAPP (P329.3 million), DSWD (P586.7), DILG (P968.9 million) and DAR (P17.6 million).

Palatino said that instead of resorting to band-aid solutions like subsidies and donations, the OPAPP should focus on its mandate of pushing for the peace talks to resume and addressing fundamental issues like systemic poverty and human rights abuses which hamper peacebuilding.

“The OPAPP should not focus on giving out subsidies and donations; it should busy itself with making sure that peace talks among the government, the MILF and the NDFP will push through and that previous peace agreements are upheld by all concerned parties. Paving way for the release of political prisoners, galvanizing steps to address systemic poverty and social injustices, engaging the public to contribute to just and lasting peace – these are some of the crucial tasks the OPAPP should perform,” Palatino said.

Palatino also raised concern with the extensive role given by the OPAPP to the Armed Forces of the Philippine (AFP) in the implementation of the Pamana program. He said that human rights violations like extra-judicial killings involving the military should be resolved first before the AFP is tapped to take part in programs like the Pamana.

“The strongly existing system of impunity and the various human rights violations involving the military cast doubt on the AFP’s participation in Pamana, a program which presents itself as centered on peacebuilding. One cannot help but suspect if the AFP’s role in the Pamana program is part of the Aquino government’s counter-insurgency program which continues to affect communities in rural areas and even claim lives of civilians,” Palatino said.

Palatino cited the recent report of human rights group KARAPATAN involving the death early this week of 7-year-old Sunshine Jabinez in Pantukan, Compostella Valley after a certain Baltazar M. Ramos, a member of the 71st Infantry Battalion, allegedly fired his armalite indiscriminately following an altercation with a fellow soldier. Ramos is also allegedly a member of the Peace and Development Outreach Program of the AFP’s 10th Infantry Division.

“How can we gain trust and confidence in OPAPP’s Pamana program if the very same people tapped to implement it are the ones involved in various human rights cases? OPAPP should not only be very clear with how it intends to implement the program but also strictly ensure that the human rights of beneficiaries will not be imperiled,” Palatino said.