MANILA, Philippines—The Duterte administration has opened the valve to a gush of taxpayer money to fund villages supposedly successful in keeping communist rebels out but in regions where a human rights group said cases of extrajudicial killings and other rights violations were highest.
In a recent announcement, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the agency in charge of implementing so-called barangay development projects designed to beat the insurgency, said at least 99 percent, or P16.24 billion, of P16.44 billion had already been released.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano, a former military general, said 822 villages, or barangays, received…
Keep on reading: P9.7B for ‘NPA-free’ villages pouring in regions with most EJKs