To hasten the government’s campaign to win peace in the countryside, each previously NPA-influenced barangay will receive P20 million worth of projects, broken down as follows: P12 million for concrete farm-to-market roads; P3 million for school buildings; P2 million for water and sanitation; P1.5 million for health stations; and P1.5 million for livelihood assistance.
WORKING overtime to end insurgency especially in far-flung and often neglected barangays, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya on Friday said a total of P12.3 billion, or 75 percent of the total budget for the 822 recipients of the Barangay Development Program (BDP) as of May 12 this year.
The amount was given to barangays which were previously influenced by the communist insurgents New People’s Army but has since been declared insurgency-free by the military.
Malaya who is also a spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), said the amount accounts for more than 1,750 projects in 617 barangays whose allocations were approved by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
“This only goes to show how efficiently these funds are being handled directly by the local government units (LGUs). 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,” Malaya said.
He clarified that not a single centavo passes through the NTF-ELCAC and that the funds are released directly by DBM to recipient LGUs upon completion of required documentation.
Of the 822 barangays, 782 barangays were endorsed for fund release by their respective Joint Regional Task Force-ELCAC. The other 40 barangays are still up for review and endorsement by the JRTFs.
Malaya also assured the public of transparency in the implementation of the barangay development projects.
“For the public to continuously monitor updates on the hows, whys and wherefores about the BDP, I invite them to make it a habit to visit the NTF-ELCAC webpage at https://www.ntfelcac.org/bdp-dashboard ,” he said.
“There, everyone will be able to keep track of where their taxes are going. And we assure you that these funds are going to where they are supposed to go and are spent the way they are supposed to be spent,” Malaya stressed.
The BDP is a flagship program which was conceptualized to finally address insurgency by bringing sustainable solutions and basic services to communities in need.
The DBM had provided the guidelines in the release of funds for hundreds of barangays in nine regions under Local Budget Circular 135 and 135-A.
Each barangay will receive P20 million worth of projects, broken down as follows: P12 million for concrete farm-to-market roads; P3 million for school buildings; P2 million for water and sanitation; P1.5 million for health stations; and P1.5 million for livelihood assistance. (SC)
Tags: #DepartmentOfInteriorandLocalGovernment, #BarangayDevelopmentProgram, #NTFELCAC