THE government, thru the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) chaired by President Marcos Jr., seeks to further alleviate the living condition of 808 isolated villages all over the country as part of its peacebuilding and development initiative.
Retired Northern Luzon commander, Lt. General Ernesto ‘Jun’ Torres, said that for 2026, they requested—and got initial approval from Congress—P8.08 billion in funding the task force’s Barangay Development Project (BDP).
At P10 million per beneficiary, the amount, he added, would be sufficient in supporting the upliftment of 808 villages, majority of them classified as ‘GIDA’ (geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas).
Due to their isolation, these areas have become strongholds and operational bases of armed state enemies, particularly, the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
The core projects under the BDP are: Farm-to-Market Roads; School buildings; Health Stations; Electrification; and, Water system
Amidst the controversies hounding the current 2025 national budget, the BDP was nearly starved of fund by Congress, with only P1.95 billion, the lowest since it was implemented in 2021.
Worse, the current allocation, while targeting 780 villages, merely allotted P2.5 million per barangay, which is just a fraction of the plundered money diverted to flood control projects scam.
The P2.5 million per barangay was the same amount given by Congress in 2024 covering 864 communities even as the allocation for flood control projects continues to rise.
However, President Marcos supplemented the 2024 allocation with an additional P5 million per beneficiary, the amount taken from the unprogrammed fund (UA) in the national budget.
In its presentation to Congress, the task force noted that thus far, the BDP had provided critical developmental support to 4,830 isolated villages since 2021 at a cost of only P36.823 billion.
The total figures. Torres said, include the prospective beneficiaries next year.
Originally, the BDP is envisioned to be given a P20 million allocation for every beneficiary community, which only happened in 2021 covering 822 barangays for a total of P16.44 billion.
The allocation sought to hasten the integration of these communities to mainstream society and strengthen their resolve in resisting CPP-NPA propaganda against the government by directly benefiting from BDP projects.
Thereafter, lawmakers opted to exercise their ‘power of the purse’ by drastically reducing the BDP budget to just P5.624 billion even as the beneficiaries nearly doubled to 1,406 barangays in 2022.
In the first budget cycle of the Marcos administration in 2023, the BDP was only given P6.329 billion covering 958 barangays.
‘It’s all in your imagination’
Meanwhile, Torres dismissed the call of the Kabataan Partylist, for the defunding of the BDP by linking it to the corruption scandal in government.
Kabataan is among the front groups of the CPP that targets the country’s youth sector for exploitation and recruitment.
“The BDP, contrary to the imagination of peace spoilers, is not a duplication of agency functions, nor a ‘pork barrel’ for the military,” Torres said.
Every BDP project undergoes validation, audit and approval by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Budget and Management and implementing LGUs, he added.
Torres said Kabataan merely seeks to undermine a program that proves “peace and progress can take root in communities previously exploited by the CPP-NPA-NDF.”
He also debunked Kabataan’s characterization that development programs under the BDP means “surrender of rights under militarization,”
Torres said the argument is “detached from reality” and “insulting” to communities that have reclaimed freedom from CPP control.
A former AFP spokesman, Torres also warned the country’s youth from Kabataan’s “ideological grooming that convinces students to take up arms instead of books.”
He cited the deaths of former Kabataan Partylist members and leaders in armed encounters after becoming NPA fighters as evidence of where such deception leads.
Torres said the unending call by the CPP-NPA-NDF and their front organizations for the dissolution of the BDP is because it “dismantles the fertile ground on which their insurgency once thrived.”