NEGROS OCCIDENTAL (PIA)– Escalante City mayor Melecio Yap, Jr. said the implementation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is a big help to the city and its beneficiaries.

In an interview over Network Briefing News, hosted by Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary JV Arcena, December 1,  he said the city established the Center for Collaborative Solution (CCS) that handles the problems and concerns of people staging rallies on the streets.

The BDP is unique in the sense that projects implemented come from people themselves through consultations. It is not a project that was merely given to them by a politician, he noted, adding that he is concerned about the news to de-fund the program as the city needs more farm-to-market roads.

The mayor challenged senators and congressmen who are against the NTF-ELCAC to visit the City of Escalante and ask the people if there are anomalies in its implementation as well as verify if it is indeed helping the beneficiaries.

Yap said if the project is stopped, it is the marginalized sector of the society beset by armed struggles that will suffer.

Currently, he said farmers are enjoying the services of a farm tractor from the BDP that gets several requests for land tilling assistance.  (AAL/Lljr/PIA6 Negros Occidental)