ILOILO City – Seventy-four villages in Western Visayas cleared of insurgents are getting P20 million each from the national government’s Barangay Development Program (BDP).
Of the 74 villages, 43 were from the province of Iloilo and Iloilo City; 25 from Negros Occidental and Bacolod City; four from Capiz; and two from Antique.
According to Army Major Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID), the P20 million will finance programs and projects of barangays “cleared of the New People’s Army’s (NPA) threat and influence” from 2016 to 2019.
But for the Department of Budget and Management to release the fund, the barangays should “comply with the documentary requirements and submit a developmental plan”, said Pancito.
The projects should be beneficial to the community, he added.
The Army, however, recommended possible projects with corresponding allocations. These were the following:
* concrete farm-to-market road – P12 million
* four-classroom school building – P3 million
* water and sanitation systems – P2 million
* national greening / forest protection program – P1.5 million
* health stations – P1.5 million
However, officials could align some funds to other projects depending on the barangay’s needs, Pancito clarified.
BDP is the government’s flagship program to end local communist armed conflict by “addressing the root causes of insurgency.”
“In fact, the selection of recipients and their corresponding programs and projects had undergone stringent vetting from national agencies,” Pancito said, adding that the Army will oversee the projects’ implementation.
As of December 2020, 312 villages in Western Visayas were “cleared” out of 432 barangays determined by the 3ID to have “insurgency affectation” since 2016.
Forty-nine villages in Panay Island and 71 in Negros Occidental are yet to be cleared.
Western Visayas has 4,051 barangays./PN
