Aiming to further strengthen overall project implementation, the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) Project Support Office (PSO) South Luzon spearheaded an assessment and planning workshop together with its regional counterparts from April 6-8, 2022 in Silang, Cavite.

The activity was aimed to present the overall performance of the CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and Bicol Regional Project Coordination Offices (RPCOs), status of ongoing subprojects, and updates on the targets under the Second Additional Financing (AF-2).

During the workshop, DA-PRDP PSO South Luzon Project Director Asec. Arnel De Mesa lauded the cluster for constantly making an effort to achieve the Project’s objectives, despite the calamities that the country and their respective regions have encountered over the past few years.

DA-PRDP National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) OIC-Deputy Project Director (DPD) and concurrent DA-PRDP PSO South Luzon DPD Shandy Hubilla presented the Project Updates, as he also encouraged the cluster to continue to work closely and strengthen collaboration with the Local Government Units (LGUs) to monitor their commitments, particularly on the disbursements, as well as to obtain more project proposals.

Cluster accomplishment and AF-2 target setting

DA-PRDP PSO South Luzon Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist Arvin San Juan presented a brief overview of the cluster’s physical and financial accomplishments as of April 4, 2022. Under the I-PLAN Component, the cluster has 46 approved Value Chain Analysis (VCAs), which resulted in 18 Commodity Investment Plans (CIPs). These CIPs have identified and generated new interventions funded by the DA-PRDP.

For the I-BUILD component, the cluster has 46 approved subprojects under the Original Loan, 11 in the First Additional Financing (AF-1), and 26 for AF-2, with a total cost of PhP8.5 billion (LP+GOP).

As for the I-REAP subprojects, there are 26, 23, and 28 approved subprojects in CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and Bicol regions, respectively, amounting to PhP395.8 million (LP+GOP).

Afterwards, the three (3) regions presented the issues and concerns that were encountered in project implementation, capped off with an open forum to come up with an action plan to resolve issues and overall improvement of processes.

Asec. De Mesa and Dir. Hubilla also instructed the I-BUILD and I-REAP components to carefully review and analyze the subprojects under AF-2 and arrive at clear and measurable targets every quarter.

PSO South Luzon assessment

Prior to the conduct of the abovementioned activity, the DA-PRDP PSO South Luzon held its first planning workshop and assessment on March 23, 2022.

The activity was attended by the PSO component and unit heads, where they were challenged by Asec. De Mesa to explore and search for new approaches that will improve the cluster’s performance. (Lea Caliuag, DA-PRDP PSO South Luzon InfoACE Unit)