THE Senate Committee on Finance cut by P24 billion the proposed budget for the Barangay Development Program for 2022 by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
According to Senator Sonny Angara, senate finance committee chairman, Malacanang proposed a budget of P30.46 billion be given to NTF-ELCAC.
Out of the proposed budget, about P28.1 billion was proposed to be allocated for the Barangay Development Program, but the senators decided to bring it down to only P4 billion.
The amount cut from the proposed budget was re-allocated to the Department of Health and other agencies and government programs meant for COVID-19 pandemic response.
The decision mirrors the senators’ frustration that up to now, they have yet to receive a report that would show how the NTF-ELCAC spent its budget this year.
The NTF-ELCAC had a budget of P19 billion this year and from this, P16.4 billion were for the Barangay Development Program. This means about P20 million are meant for projects in barangays said to be getting frustrated with the influence of the New People’s Army.
Sen. Angara said that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) already distributed the budget to the barangays but in their estimation, the budget for infrastructure projects have not been fully utilized yet because of the COVID-19 pandemic.