DAVAO CITY- Department of Interior and Local Government-XI Regional Director Alex Roldan has warned barangays who are beneficiaries of the BDP (Barangay Development Program) on persons roaming around and enticing them on getting cuts on the so-called BDP projects in exchange for advance payment to process these so-called projects.

“Ang ilang gina-himo ginatuyok nila ang mga barangay muingon sila taga DBM (Department of Budget and Management) sila. Ingnan ang mga barangay na sila na magparelease sa funds dawaton nalang nila ang project basta ang project kanang solar light (What they do, they come to the barangays they tell them they are from the DBM, they tell the barangays that they’d be the one to release the funds and they will just accept the project as long as it is solar lighting),” Roldan said.

One solar light post is said to cost around P150,000 to P200,000 which according to Roldan is very expensive.

“And they promise the barangay captain that once the funds are released, they will give a certain amount. But before they will process the project, they will ask an amount from the barangay captain,” Roldan describes the modus operandi of these individuals.

The DILG-XI regional director said that a technical study will have to be made first before they can come up with an agency estimate.

“Dili man na pwede na mao na ilang presyo mao na na. Ang technical working group sa munisipyo mao na sila magscan pila makab-ot para maka come up ta ug agency estimate na maoy basis sa procurement (it just cannot be done that the price they quoted is just that. The technical working group of the municipality will study how much the price is so they can come up with an agency estimate that will be the basis of the procurement),” Roldan said.

He said these individuals are tapping into the need of the kapitans for cash with the coming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.

The Barangay Development Program are socio-economic projects in far-flung villages with the end-goal of bringing development to recently declared insurgency-free communities. In Region 11 the Support to BDP (SBDP) funding amounted to P4.3 billion spread to 607 projects in 215 barangays across Davao Region since 2021.

Under the SBDP funding in 2021 each beneficiary barangay will get P20-million worth of projects

“As of the moment about 11.2% of the projects in the region are ongoing. The completed projects are 88.63%,” Roldan said.

Under the new funding, each barangay will get P6 million and currently the submission for proposals is ongoing.  

“And this is where we wanted the media to help us because there are people going to these barangays bringing with them a memorandum of agreement for the barangays, that they’d be the one to choose the project. The contractor chooses, not the barangay,” Roldan said.

“I went to Davao Oriental, Davao de Oro, Davao del Sur to talk to the barangay officials involved in the new projects na ayaw mo tuo ana (do not believe in those),” Roldan said. (PIA/RG Alama)