NTF-ELCAC cuts barangay dev’t program to P5M per village for 2027

MANILA – The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict ahs halved the amount villages will get from its Barangay Development Program in 2027 to more than double the number of communities it will cover.

NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Danilo Pamonag said they recommended a P5-million budget per barangay under the BDP, which is half of the P10 million allotted per community for this year.

More than 1,900 conflict-affected barangays will benefit under the project next year against 808 barangays this year.

“It would be very challenging for the community but as you see, for next year, there would be more barangays that would [benefit],” Pamonag said in a chance interview on the sidelines of NTF-ELCAC’s  10th Executive Committee Meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday, November 4.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who chairs the task force, led the meeting.

The task force says on its website that the BDP “intends to bring sustainable development programs to conflict-prone and conflict-affected communities.”

The program is meant to meet the needs of the remote barangays by providing access roads, water systems, electrification, irrigation and health facilities.

Pamonag, asked on government’s efforts against the communist insurgency, said they are “still on top of the situation.”

He said the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army is on the decline and “have nowhere to go because the government projects are already in the communities.”

Citing data from the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Pamonag said the CPP-NPA has “less than a thousand” guerrillas left.

He said the BDP has constricted rebel areas and “opens a maneuver space for the government”. 

He said the government “[hopes] to finish” its counter-insurgency fight before Marcos Jr.’s term ends.

Around 13,000 former rebels and ex-combatants have pending applications for the government’s amnesty program, which the executive branch hopes to extend until 2028.