Over 16,000 Former Rebels Benefit from Philippine Government Reintegration Efforts
MANILA – The Philippine government’s reintegration program has successfully aided 16,551 former members and supporters of the New People’s Army (NPA), who have disassociated from the group, according to a mid-year report by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
According to Philippines News Agency, the beneficiaries include 6,945 individuals who received livelihood projects and 9,606 former rebels who received reintegration assistance. These beneficiaries are primarily from geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas. National Security Adviser and concurrent NTF-ELCAC co-vice chair, Secretary Eduardo Año, attributed the success to the effective execution of a whole-of-nation/whole-of-government approach aimed at concluding the long-standing armed conflict.
The Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) has been instrumental in this effort, providing essential skills training and development assistance to conflict-affected communities. Año emphasized that despite a meager budget, the program managed to assist 864 barangays this year alone. NTF-ELCAC Executive Director and Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr. highlighted the SBDP’s critical role in undermining the CPP-NPA’s efforts to re-establish their influence in these areas.
For 2024, the SBDP received PHP2.160 billion to fund 885 projects, with PHP1.292 billion already disbursed for infrastructure and community service projects like farm-to-market roads, school buildings, water and sanitation systems, rural electrification, and health stations. Torres expressed hopes that Congress would increase funding to PHP10 million per village in the next fiscal year to continue these gains.
According to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), significant progress has been made on various infrastructure and community projects under the SBDP from 2021 to 2023, with PHP28.393 billion disbursed through the Local Government Support Fund-SBDP.