Congress urged to fund NTF-ELCAC programs

Posted to the Mindanao Examiner (Dec 19, 2021): Congress urged to fund NTF-ELCAC programs (By John Rey Saavedra)

Bohol Governor Arthur Yap has urged members of Congress to show their sincerity in resolving the decades-old old insurgency problems by approving the funding for barangay-level development projects.

Yap said the development programs are the answer to the insurgency in villages identified as communist terrorist group-affected areas.

“ELCAC (Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict) is the most expansive program to fund development down to the barangay level in CTG affected areas,” he said, adding, the projects prepared through the Barangay Development Program are vetted by the local governments side by side with the affected communities and national government agencies.

“Now that the hard preparatory work is done, I ask that Congress, especially the Senate, must now fund this project to show our serious resolve in ending half a century of bloodshed and missed opportunities,” he said.

He called on the lawmakers to support the administration’s effort to end the insurgency in order not to waste more time and lives uselessly.

Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo also called on his constituents to show their dismay by not electing politicians who would block development efforts in the conflict-hit villages. “If there are politicians who want to undermine this unified program for national peace, let them show our frustration by denying them of our vote in the upcoming election on May 9, 2022,” he said.

Degamo said programs designed solely to benefit residents in affected and vulnerable areas have restored people’s confidence in our government. He cited the National Task Force ELCAC’s effort to bring in various national government agencies, local officials, community leaders, and people’s organizations in proposing programs through the whole-of-nation approach as directed by President Rodrigo Duterte under Executive Order No. 70.

Guihulngan Mayor Carlo Jorge Joan Reyes also thanked Duterte and the legislative branch for funding development projects in conflict-hit communities in his city which is considered as the most vulnerable area in Central Visayas due to the presence of the New People’s Army.

Reyes said the city’s Task Force ELCAC has been working with the national task force in hatching projects that will directly redound to the benefit of vulnerable communities. “Guihulngan City Task Force ELCAC is immensely grateful to NTF-ELCAC for the tangible and solid gains achieved in terms of peace and national security. These gains are the natural and expected benefits that spring from the grant of to the different conflict-affected barangays,” Reyes said.

These projects, he said, should continue as the government intends to face the challenge of uplifting the lives of the constituents by responsibly executing the delivery of basic and social services. 

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