Implementation of SBDP projects in Ilocos Sur town starts
By Freddie Lazaro / Philippine Information Agency
STO. DOMINGO, Ilocos Sur – The implementation of the P20 million Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) in Barangay Nagbettedan here will start immediately upon the formal groundbreaking rite of its infrastructure components on Friday, July 16.
In a simple program, Secretary Hermogenes C. Esperon Jr., the national security adviser; Ilocos Sur Governor Ryan Luis V. Singson; Ilocos Sur’s First District Congressman Deogracias Victor B. Savellano; and Sto. Domingo town Mayor Bryan Dexter Tadena led the groundbreaking ceremony of the projects with the presence of the residents and the members of the Joint Regional Task Force 1 – Ending the Local Communist Armed Conflict (JRTF1-ELCAC).
Secretary Esperon said the Barangay Nagbettedan in Sto. Domingo town is one of the two identified barangays in Ilocos Sur as a recipient of the P20 million SBDP project for Calendar Year 2021.
The other village-recipient of the SBDP in Ilocos Sur is Barangay Baluarte in Salcedo town.
Russel S. Alcanciado, the local focal person of the SBDP and the current Sto. Domingo town’s Municipal Planning Development Officer (MPDO), said the SBDP in the town has three components.
They are the construction of the 1.481 kilometers farm to market road worth P16 million, the construction of one school building worth P2 million, and the P2 million worth of livelihood trainings and cash for work aid to the barangay residents.
The SBDP projects are intended for the 822 villages nationwide that were declared insurgency–free from 2016 to 2019.
A total of P16.44 billion fund was approved under Republic Act 11518, otherwise known as the FY 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the Local Government Support Fund – Support to Barangay Development Program (LGSF-SBDP).
The LGSF-SBDP aims to sustain the delivery of basic and social services to address the root cause of insurgency and other armed conflicts which is poverty.
The identified project components of the SBDP are farm-to-market roads; school buildings; water and sanitation system; health stations; rural electrification; reconstruction, rehabilitation, repair, and other similar projects in connection with the occurrence of natural or human-induced calamities, epidemics, crises resulting from armed conflicts, insurgency, terrorism, and other catastrophes; housing; COVID-19 vaccination, immunization, and other health-related projects; agricultural, livelihood, and technical vocational trainings/projects; and, assistance to indigent individuals or families in any of the following forms of assistance such as medical, burial, transportation, food, cash for work, and educational.
For his part, Governor Singson cited the serious effort of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte for achieving his aim of ending the problem of insurgency by the end of his term in 2022.
“President Duterte is the only president that I have seen to have a serious campaign against insurgency and to have focused programs for the insurgency cleared villages. Once these programs will be implemented, they will help alleviate the plight of the people and will eventually stop the five-decade problem of insurgency,” Singson said. (JCR/AMB/FGL, PIA 1)