Bohol guv urges Congress to fund NTF-ELCAC programs

From the Philippine News Agency (Dec 13, 2021): Bohol guv urges Congress to fund NTF-ELCAC programs (By John Rey Saavedra)

Bohol Governor Arthur Yap and Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo. (PNA file photos)

Governor Arthur Yap of Bohol province on Monday urged members of Congress to show their sincerity in resolving the half-a-century old armed conflict by approving funding for barangay-level development projects.

Yap, in a statement, said development programs are the answer to the insurgency in villages identified as “communist terrorist group (CTG)-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.

Yap said the projects prepared through the Barangay Development Program (BDP) are vetted by the local government units 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,” the governor said.

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

In a separate statement, Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo urged 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 in the local dialect.

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.

Earlier, Mayor Carlo Jorge Joan Reyes of Guihulngan City thanked Duterte and the legislative branch for funding development projects in conflict-hit communities in his city.

Guihulngan City is considered as the most vulnerable area in Central Visayas due to the presence of the New People’s Army (NPA). 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 (BDP) 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.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1162601