TACLOBAN CITY — Unless vetoed by the President, 23 far-flung villages previously affected by communist insurgency in Eastern Visayas are set to receive P10 million each for development projects under the Support to the Barangay Development Program (SBDP) implemented by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

DILG Regional Director Arnel Agabe said the 23 barangays have identified 36 priority projects, including farm-to-market roads, health stations, water systems, and school facilities.

Funding will be sourced from the proposed P8.08-billion allocation for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which was approved by the congressional bicameral committee and submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for enactment.

“Proposed projects came from community based on their identified priorities which were included in their enhanced barangay development plan (eBDP),” Agabe said.

The SBDP is a flagship initiative under NTF-ELCAC that provides funding for basic services in previously conflict-affected communities, aiming to address the root causes of insurgency and promote peace and development through infrastructure projects.

Agabe said the beneficiary barangays were selected based on a list vetted and approved by NTF-ELCAC.

In Eastern Visayas, 10 barangays with 16 projects are located in Leyte; five barangays with seven projects in Eastern Samar; five barangays with 10 projects in Northern Samar; and three barangays with three projects in Southern Leyte.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines, along with left-leaning legal mass organizations, has called for the scrapping of the NTF-ELCAC budget.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, through its social arm Caritas Philippines, has also urged close scrutiny of the proposed funding for NTF-ELCAC and the SBDP.

In an earlier pastoral statement, Caritas Philippines expressed “grave concern” over what it described as the allocation of projects as a reward for barangays declared free of insurgency.

“Infrastructure projects—such as farm-to-market roads, health stations, and water systems—are necessary. But when delivered as palliatives, without confronting the structural roots of poverty, they merely manage suffering rather than end it,” the church group stated.

However, NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Undersecretary Ernesto C. Torres Jr. rejected claims that SBDP funds serve as a “reward for peace.”

Torres said the program is meant to correct decades of state neglect in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, noting that many communities were left without basic roads, schools, clinics, water systems, electricity, or livelihood support—conditions that allowed the CPP-NPA-NDF insurgency to take root.