NTF-ELCAC program funds school construction in Samar village

From the Philippine News Agency (May 26, 2023): NTF-ELCAC program funds school construction in Samar village (By Sarwell Meniano)

READY FOR CLASS. The newly-completed school building in a remote village in Motiong, Samar. This is one of the seven projects in the town funded under the NTF-ELCAC flagship program Support to Barangay Development Program. (Photo courtesy of Department of the Interior and Local Government Samar)

TACLOBAN CITY – The national government has completed a school building in the remote village of Motiong, Samar funded under the Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) meant for communities previously affected by armed conflict.

The SBDP, a hallmark program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), brings progress to former conflict-prone communities.

During the turnover on Thursday, Mayor Renato Cabael said the school building in the village of Sto. Niño,is the second SBDP-funded project completed in the town. The first are classrooms for daycare learners in Malobago village.

“This school building will create a conducive learning ground for the 33 elementary learners of Sto. Niño. The construction of this structure affirms the national government's effort to end insurgency in Samar,” Cabael added.

The mayor said that out of seven SBDP projects funded under the 2022 allocation in Motiong town, two have been completed and the other five are expected to be finished in September this year.

He urged residents to help maintain the 56-square-meter building that will ensure a brighter future for the town’s children.

Motiong, a fourth-class town with a population of more than 15,000, is a recipient of five other ongoing SBDP projects.

The other projects in the municipality are in the villages of San Andres, Barayong, Beri, Canvais, and Sarao.

Malobago is one of the 200 villages identified as SBDP recipients last year in five provinces in the Eastern Visayas region.

Each village got a PHP4 million outlay for the construction of farm-to-market roads, health stations, rural electrification, school buildings, or water and sanitation system.

Projects have been identified by residents during the Retooled Community Support Program, a convergence mechanism for local governments in the village, to identify issues and needed government interventions.

Recipient communities were previously influenced by the communist New People’s Army, according to the DILG.

The NTF-ELCAC, created under Executive Order 70 issued on Dec. 4, 2018, is tasked to “provide an efficient mechanism and structure for the implementation of the whole-of-nation approach to aid in the realization of collective aspirations for inclusive and sustainable peace.”

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1202254