‘Gov’t efforts in clearing communist barangays will be wasted if ELCAC defunded’ - DILG

Quezon City, Philippines – With several lawmakers pushing for their agenda to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) appealed for consideration.

In a statement, DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año said the efforts of the government in clearing some 882 barangays from influence of leftist group shall be put into waste if they leave these barangays hanging.

“We therefore appeal to our Senators not to deprive these barangays of government support and assistance now that they need us most,” the DILG Secretary said, adding that the main reason why these barangays were misled and influenced by the rebels is ‘because the people never felt the presence of government’

Defunding NTF-ELCAC means ending the funding initiatives for programs and projects allotted to the barangays will result to unwanted scenarios.

Earlier, some senators last month including Sen. Richard Gordon, Sen. Joey Villanueva and Sen. Nancy Binay made remarks on the tendency of removing the fund of NTF-ELCAC amounting to P19.1-billion budget after the task force’s spokesperson, Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr. red-tagged some community pantry organizers and even likened their initiatives to the works of Satan.

DILG’s assures transparency on the implementation of projects

In the agency’s press release, DILG guaranteed for the transparency of the implementation of the P16.44-billion Barangay Development Program.

He said that the budget will ‘bring infrastructure and development projects to some 822 remote and neglected barangays nationwide that have been cleared of communist influence by government forces since 2019’.

Under the Support to the Barangay Development Program (SBDP), the DILG Secretary said that each cleared barangay will be given up to P20-million for various projects like farm-to-market roads; school buildings; water and sanitation system; health stations; rural electrification; agricultural, livelihood, and technical vocational training or projects; assistance to indigent individuals or families; housing; COVID-19 Vaccination and other health-related projects; and projects in connection with natural or human-induced calamities.

A total of 2,386 SBDP projects, the DILG chief disclosed have also been identified by local government units in 40 provinces, 198 cities and municipalities, and 822 barangays nationwide.

Out of these proposed projects, 1,460, he said have already been endorsed to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) which amounts to P8.282-billion.

Benefiting areas in the Cordillera

Eight barangays in the Cordillera region declared free from the influence of communist-terrorist groups (CTG) were allotted P160 million grant for the implementation of around 24 projects as part of the program.

Identified as beneficiaries include the Barangays of Bayabas, Buanao, Dulao, Duldulao, Ud-udiao in Malibcong and Barangay Naguilian in Salapadan in the province of Abra, Barangay Babalag East in Rizal, Kalong, and Barangay Tamboan in Besao, Mt. Province.

The funding from the NTF-ELCAC through SBDP will be for the construction of nine farm-to-market roads, three school buildings, eight water and sanitation system, three barangay health stations, and one agricultural, livelihood training project.

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