Sorsogon town gets biggest share of projects from ELCAC

By Marlon Atun

LEGAZPI CITY --- The municipality of Bulan in Sorsogon province has received the first biggest release of budget from the Support to the Barangay Development Fund (SBDF) under the National Task Force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Lawyer Anthony Nuyda, director of Department of the Interior and Local Government for region 5, said P140 million of SBDP fund has been downloaded to the local government unit (LGU) of Bulan.

Nuyda said the conduct of the groundbreaking ceremony on August 24, 2022 served as the greenlight to start the implementation of the projects.

Bulan Mayor Romeo Gordola welcomed the release of the budget, saying LGU Bulan would always be grateful to NTF-ELCAC for allotting P140 million to 35 barangays in his town.

A total of 48 projects will be implemented in those barangays, with each project costing about P1 million to P4 million.

Brigadier General Rudolph Miras, director of Police Regional Office 5, said the implementation of SBDP would lead the people in the countryside to realize that the government is there to take care of them.

Miras said a lasting peace can be achieved in the locality in the event communist terrorist groups (CTG) embrace the government’s development programs in remote villages.

The projects that would be financed by the SBDF fund include farm to market roads, road openings, and health station in barangay San Francisco.

According to Assistant Director Rene Valera of the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s Project Development Services, the SBD Program is a government innovation to help barangays that were once under the CTG’s influence.

The program covers the barangays in the far flung areas where government services maybe unavailable and difficult for government personnel to deliver due to CTG threats. (PIA 5)