DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/25 July) – The Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) received a fresh funding for infrastructure projects worth P9.
068 billion from the World Bank approved last May this year, an official said.
Engr. Danilo Alesna, deputy project director PRDP-Mindanao, said in an interview on Wednesday they have yet to determine what infrastructure projects would be funded but added it will be rolled out in September this year.
He said at least 171 projects have been approved under the Intensified Building Up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development (I-BUILD) program in Mindanao. This comprises about 40% of PRDP’s projects in the country, approved as of July 5 this year.
Of the 171 projects, he said at 60 were completed, 77 are ongoing, and 34 are undergoing the procurement process.
Since it started in 2014, the PRDP has received a total of P27.5 billion. Over half of the amount went to I-BUILD (P18.54 billion), Investments in Rural Enterprise and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity or I-REAP (P6.93 billion), Investments in AFMP Planning at the Local and National Levels or I-PLAN, and Implementation Support to PRDP or I-SUPPORT (P1.23 billion).
He said majority of the PRDP projects went to the six-region Mindanao because it has a wider scope compared to Luzon and the Visayas. It has more experienced technical people to assist local government units in making proposals, and the island has more areas that need help.
He said they follow the specific guidelines of the World Bank and the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) and Value Chain Analysis (VCA) in selecting the project proposals of the LGUs in the target areas.
The PCIP is a “strategic plan that rationalizes the interventions within the various segments of the value chain of commodities that are significant in the province and that will contribute to the national goals of the agriculture and fishery sector.”
Alesna said the 27 provinces in Mindanao are now using the PCIP in their development plans that facilitate convergence with other national government agencies.
Meanwhile, the VCA provides farmer-entrepreneurs relevant inputs to identify and develop the linkage and interrelationships between activities that create value, profitability and competitive advantage of a certain commodity aligning the segments of the value chain.
A geo-tagging technology is utilized to facilitate an easy and accurate location of infrastructure, livelihood and agri-fishery facilities on a map and to enable virtual monitoring and supervision of subproject implementation
“We don’t go to areas like mining and we don’t go to reserved areas because we mainly focus on agricultural production areas, and when you say agricultural production. So, outside of those agricultural commodities, we never intend to intervene,” he added.
Under the IBUILD, he said emerging outcomes include 54% reduction of travel time; 13% reduction of hauling cost, 189% increase in traffic; 15.2% increase in household incomes.
The PRDP is a six-year (2014-2020) development platform of the national government, which seeks to partner with the LGUs and the private sector in providing key infrastructures, facilities, technology and information. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
