KARAPATAN: Probe NTF-ELCAC’s BDP, E-CLIP funds
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
02 October 2025
References: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
KARAPATAN: Probe NTF-ELCAC’s BDP, E-CLIP funds
KARAPATAN called for an independent investigation into the Barangay Development Program (BDP), the primary program of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), as the human rights group reiterated its call for the abolition of the notorious task force.
KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay expressed alarm that the PhP8-billion BDP budget for 2026 which reflects a 314.4% hike over the 2025 budget of P2 billion, also marks a 314% increase in opportunities for corruption.
Of particular concern, she said, are farm to market roads (FMR), a key component of the BDP ostensibly implemented to discourage the peasantry from supporting the armed insurgency by enhancing farming communities’ livelihoods through improved access to markets and services.
“The NTF-ELCAC’s FMR projects, however, should not be exempt from probes, as it is part of government infrastructure projects, which should be all under scrutiny now. All hard projects of the government should be looked at as reports of ‘ghost roads,’ unfinished projects, substandard construction, overpricing and misappropriated funds are rife,” Palabay said.
The task force’s budget for Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program (E-CLIP), which is allocated in the budget for the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), is similarly questionable, as KARAPATAN received several reports that those presented as armed rebel-beneficiaries are ordinary civilians.
“The NTF-ELCAC’s bureaucrats are not just red-taggers and fascists,” said Palabay. “They are crooks with their own fiefdom who have long been using the BDP and E-CLIP funds as their milch cow,” said Palabay.
“The NTF-ELCAC not only deserves to be defunded for corruption and repression,” stressed Palabay. “It must be abolished.”
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.