THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) yesterday said 75 percent, or P12.3 billion, of the P16.4 billion funding for the controversial Barangay Development Program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) have already been released to covered local government units.
Interior Undersecretary and spokesman Jonathan Malaya said the released amount will fund about 1,750 projects in 617 out of the total intended 822 barangay beneficiaries.
The BDP calls for the construction of needed infrastructures like farm-to-market roads, school buildings, and health centers in areas formerly infested by the New People’s Army.
Officials of the NTF-ELCAC said these projects are necessary to prevent the communists from regaining control of these areas.
Some senators have called for the defunding of the NTF-ELCAC and the reallocation of the BDP funds to the government’s COVID-19 response measures after task force spokesman Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade and
Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy red-tagged several organizers of community pantries that were put up all over the country to help low-income and hungry families affected by the pandemic.
Malaya, who is also the NTF-ELCAC spokesman on BDP and local government concerns, said the funds were released by the Department of Budget and Management directly to the LGU beneficiaries.
“This only goes to show how efficiently these funds are being handled directly by the local government units. Only last week, we reported a 65 percent budget approval but with updates we got from Regions 4A and 11, we now stand at 75 percent,” said Malaya.
Malaya said the Joint Regional Task Force (JRTF)-ELCAC actually endorsed the release of the funds to 782 barangays but only 617 of them have so far received the funds.
