National securiry adviser Eduardo Año said on Thursday, August 15 he was “confident Congress would restore (next year) the Support for Barangay Development Program (SBDP) budget” under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC).
In Iloilo the NTF ELCAC funded P720 million for 165 projects in Miagao, Igbaras, Tubungan, Leon and Alimodian in 2022. Of these, only 55 projects were completed, 105 projects were unfinished, and 5 were never started, as disclosed to HilwayNews last year by then acting provincial administrator Dennis Ventilacion.
The Iloilo provincial government has requested in early 2023 for the extension of budget application deadline for another year in order to complete the mothballed projects, but to no avail.
SBDP funded the projects used for basic infrastructure, such as farm-to-market roads, rural electrification, health stations, water and sanitation systems, school buildings, and sustainable livelihood projects in the so-called geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas (GIDAs) of the country.
