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On December 2018, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte issued Executive Order No. 70 (EO70) entitled Institutionalizing the Whole-of-Nation Approach in Attaining Inclusive and Sustainable Peace, Creating a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and Directing the Adoption of the National Peace Framework. EO70 aims to synchronize the government’s instrumentalities of power with the capabilities of private sector stakeholders to end the atrocities committed by the communist terrorist groups against the Filipino People.

Banking on the years of experience in capability-building and administering locally-funded programs in the countryside, the Department of the Interior and Local Government came up with priority programs that are targeted to bring the government closer to its key stakeholders.

Through the creation of the Localization of EO70 Program Management Office, the Department has implemented key peace initiatives, which are the Retooled Community Support Program, Capacitating Urban Communities for Peace and Development Program, and Support to the Barangay Development Program. All are under the umbrella of Communicating for Perpetual end to Extreme violence and forming Alliance towards positive Change and Enriched communities (C4PEACE) Program.

The Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP) is a convergence mechanism for local governments, particularly in the barangays for the identification of issues and needed government interventions. It is anchored on the empowerment framework that intends to develop people’s capability to organize themselves and own development by bringing about value-chain interventions to uplift their current condition. The RCSP emerged from the Community Support Program (CSP) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines which is a multi-stakeholder and community-based endeavor to achieve peace and development. The CSP aims to protect communities from the effects of local armed conflicts. Through the CSP, issues surrounding the communities were identified and development interventions were introduced. To strengthen the role of the LGUs on this initiative and encourage participation of other government agencies, the RCSP was formulated to fill in the gaps in the development and address the limitations set forth in a military recourse. The LGUs through their Local Chief Executives are mandated to spearhead the implementation of all the RCSP initiatives. The identified barangays under their respective regions follow an operational methodology in its implementation with six (6) Phases and a Timeline in its Monitoring and Evaluation. The RCSP continues to be an avenue for community-centered and civilian-based leadership at the forefront of realizing the objective of the whole-of-nation approach of the EO70.

The Capacitating Urban Communities for Peace and Development (CUCPD) is a platform for convergence and collaboration among all stakeholders in the local level in championing the drive of improving institutional capacity of LGUs to undertake peacebuilding programs that are development-oriented and context-sensitive to solve the prevailing and remaining issues of the various sectors of society. The CUCPD is one of the strategies being implemented towards the goal of the EO70. This program utilizes a sectoral-based approach to identify the real and most urgent needs of the most vulnerable sectors of society. Issues such as underdevelopment, inequality, injustice, and oppression in economic, political, and social systems coupled with unresponsive government programs and actors make the marginalized sectors of society namely the youth, women, labor, and urban poor more vulnerable to the influence of groups fostering insurgency and armed conflict. Thus, by empowering LGUs and other stakeholders to determine the primary concerns of each sector, appropriate peacebuilding and development programs may be implemented to resolve the underlying issues.

Pursuant to the issuance of Executive Order No. 70, the Support to Barangay Development Program (SBDP) is a national priority program of the government which provides the much-needed support, both infrastructure and social services, to the 822 barangays that were cleared from insurgency from 2016-2019.

Under Special Provision No. 4 of the General Appropriations Act FY 2021, the LGSF-SBDP is allocated with an amount of 16.44 billion pesos which shall be used for the implementation of various support programs for the 822 beneficiary barangays. Each cleared barangay shall be allocated with an amount not exceeding 20 million pesos to be used for the following projects: i.) Farm-to-Market Roads; ii.) School buildings; iii.) Water and sanitation system; iv.) Health stations; v.) Rural electrification; vi.) 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; vii.) Housing; viii.) COVID-19 vaccination, immunization, and other health-related projects; ix.) Agricultural, livelihood and technical vocational trainings/projects; x.) Assistance to indigent individuals or families in any of the following forms of assistance: (a) Medical; (b) Burial; (c) Transportation; (d) Food; (e) Cash for work; (f) Educational.

Prior to the implementation of SBDP, the Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP) has provided the groundwork and platform for solution-seeking dialogues, Serbisyo Caravans, and enhancement of Barangay Development Plans, among others. From the results of RCSP, the SBDP shall now help support, finance, and implement the programs, projects, and activities which were identified as local priority needs by the barangays.