11 anti-insurgency projects kick off in Northern Samar town

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 19, 2024): 11 anti-insurgency projects kick off in Northern Samar town (By Roel Amazona)

FIGHTING INSURGENCY. Officials lead the groundbreaking of projects under the Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) in Guba village, Catarman, Northern Samar on Thursday (Sept. 19, 2024). SBDP is one of the initiatives of the national government to end insurgency. (Photo courtesy of Catarman municipal information office)

TACLOBAN CITY – At least 11 projects under the Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) designed to end insurgency are now ongoing in the town of Catarman in Northern Samar.

Catarman municipal engineer Carlito Danque said key officials on Thursday led the groundbreaking of these projects, including a potable water system, farm-to-market roads, school buildings, and barangay electrification.

Each of these projects costs PHP2.5 million and is up for completion in 2025.

The projects have been identified by communities during the conduct of the retooled community support program (RCSP).

“My message to village officials is for them to become active in monitoring the implementation to ensure its quality and timely completion,” Danque said in a phone interview.

The potable water system projects will be installed in Cag-abaca, Cularima, and Liberty villages, while.school buildings will rise in Aguinaldo, Guba, and Bocsol villages.

Recipients of renewable energy-based electrification projects are the villages of Salvacion, Cabayhan, Gebulwangan, Imelda, and Paticua.

SBDP, a flagship program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict bankrolled under the Local Government Support Fund, aims to address poverty and development in geographically isolated and disadvantageous areas that were once affected or influenced by the New People’s Army.

These projects are implemented in communities that are part of the RCSP, an inclusive program that addresses identified issues of the community by bridging it to the offices concerned, closing the governance and development gaps, ensuring sustainability, and promoting peace.

The recipient communities were RCSP areas of the Philippine Army’s 43rd Infantry Battalion in 2023.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1233719