MALAYBALAY CITY (PIA)—Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar said the series of groundbreaking rites for the P1.4 billion barangay development projects in Bukidnon that started last September is part of the fulfilled promise of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to improve lives in far-reaching villages here before the President’s term ends.
“This proves that President Duterte has kept his promise of ‘a comfortable life’ for all Filipinos by bringing the government closer to the people and ensuring that no one is left behind, even those in the most remote places of the country,” Andanar said.
In Bukidnon, he said, the government has poured more than P1.4 billion worth of projects through the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) funds.
The projects, composed of concreting and upgrading of farm-to-market roads; construction of solar dryers with warehouses; provision of farm inputs and livestock dispersal; construction of typhoon-resistant school buildings and health centers; provision of safe drinking water system; local road opening with spillway and line canals, are being implemented in Bukidnon’s 71 geographically isolated barangays.
The initiative, officially known as the Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP)—which Andanar described as a hallmark of NTF-ELCAC—strives to bring development to mostly mountainous and former conflict-prone areas that fought hard to clear their communities of communist influence.
Each of the 71 barangays received P20 million in projects as a reward for weeding out communist rebels in their territories.
Once completed, Andanar said these would help farmers bring their produce to markets and raise incomes of the rural population as these would attract more investments and enhance productivity.
Eljie Mandacayan, one of the farmer-beneficiaries in Kapalaran, Dangcagan, Bukidnon shared that years before the Duterte Administration, life was difficult because more than half of their fruit and vegetable products end up as waste even before they arrive in the market due to poor road conditions.
“The Build, Build, Build project of the government encouraged our farmers to grow higher-value crops and enabled us to transport our harvests faster, keeping it fresh and in good condition upon reaching the market. We owe this to President Digong Duterte,” she spoke rapidly in dialect during the SBDP launch in Dangcagan town.
Mandacayan also shared that the Philippine Army’s Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP) played a vital role in SBDP while explaining that the villagers chose the farm-to-market roads and drinking water projects since these are “most needed.”
With over 130 projects being implemented, SBDP and its effects are already being felt in Bukidnon’s remote communities.
The NTF-ELCAC data showed that Bukidnon has the highest number of communist-cleared barangays, getting P1.4 billion, the biggest portion of NTF-ELCAC’s total program budget of P2.3 billion in region 10.
As the Cabinet Officer for Regional Development and Security for Northern Mindanao (CORDS X), the PCOO Secretary emphasized that the national and local government units’ coordination in peace building and development would ensure that the next generation will someday remember that the President has steered the country towards change for a better Philippines.
“These NTF-ELCAC barangay development projects are only a few of President Duterte’s many legacies. Let us embrace it. Make use of it and continue to build on it,” Andanar said. (RLRB/PIA 10/Bukidnon)
