December 1, 2014

PUERTO PRINSESA CITY, PALAWAN — No holds barred. That best describes the Regional Program Coordination Office (RPCO), Luzon B Program Support Office (PSO), and Provincial Program Management and Implementation Unit’s (PPMIU) sharing of ideas during the Luzon B (South Luzon) Year-End Assessment and Planning held on November 25-28, 2014 at the Citystate Asturias Hotel in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. About 80 RPCO and PSO staff and PPMIU members from Regions IV-A (Calabarzon), IV-B (Mimaropa) and V (Bicol) as well as municipal local government units (MLGUs) of Guinayangan, Mulanay, and Lucban in Quezon and Roxas, Palawan attended the said activity.

Luzon B PSO organized the year-end assessment to discuss and assess each region’s overall performance, identify problem areas, issues, concerns and challenges encountered per component, and recommend solution to address them.

Among the common issues shared by the PPMIUs to the RPCO V are lack of manpower complement to provide necessary assistance, particularly in reviewing documents prior to RPAB approval, conflicting schedule of activities and submission deadlines, and failure to provide finalized or approved operations manual (OM) and guidelines to the PPMIUs. Meanwhile, RPCO V openly discussed their concerns on some PPMIU counterpart staff’s unavailability due to multi-tasking, failure to observe communication protocols and not following timeliness in submitting the required documents. RPCO’s concern on mobility in the conduct of validation, monitoring, and inspection, lack of manpower to provide technical assistance to PPMIUs, and overlapping PSO and RPCO activities were also raised to the PSO.

During the year-end assessment, the RPCO V, PPMIU, and Luzon B PSO also underscored good practices during the first year of PRDP implementation in the region including learning by doing, good working relationship among the RPCO, PSO and PPMIU, and commodity prioritization per province. According to Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Luzon B Director Shandy M. Hubilla, Bicol obtained P646,965,572.96 out of the total P1,286,654,378.47 PSO South Luzon budget for 2014, the highest cost of sub-projects (SPs) allotment in the entire cluster. These include five Intensified Building-Up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development (I-BUILD) SPs with an aggregate total amount of P636,582,705.88 that received the No Objection Letter (NOL) 1 issuance last October 15 and 30, 2014. These SPs, said Hubilla, are now in the procurement stage. “We expect that by next year ma-open bids and by February to March secure the NOL 2 and Notice to Proceed (NTP) so we could start the implementation by March or April,” he added. Other Region V SPs worth P10,382,867.08 await issuance of NOL 1 before the end of this year.

Hubilla acknowledged teamwork as the key to the smooth PRDP implementation in the region. “Maganda ang tulungan, coaching, and mentoring, particularly in the finalization of feasibility studies and business plans,” he said. Nevertheless, he noted the importance of hiring additional technical personnel particularly engineers and Investments in Rural Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity (I-REAP) staff to provide technical assistance and monitor the implementation of SPs for each province by the first to second quarter of next year.

As of November 2014, Bicol has received NOL 1 for five I-BUILD SPs in Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Albay and three value chain analyses (VCA) for the coco geonets of Albay and Camarines Norte and abaca of Catanduanes while three I-REAP SPs worth P62.9 million and Provincial Commodity Investment Plans (PCIPs) from Albay, Camarines Sur, and Camarines Norte await NOL 1 issuance. The other three provinces—Sorsogon, Masbate, and Catanduanes are working on the completion of their PCIPs due on December 30, 2014 to be included in the South Luzon 2015 budget. (Annielyn L. Baleza, I-SUPPORT InfoACE Unit, DA-RAFID 5)

The RPCO V PSO Luzon B and the PPMIUs of Albay, Cam. Sur and Cam. Norte during the South Luzon Cluster Year-end Assessment and Planning held on Nov. 25-28 at the Citystate Asturias Hotel in Puerto Princesa, Palawan

RPCO V Program Development Associate Edgardo B. dela Torre (standing, 2nd from left) and M&E Unit Head Maribel O. Bitao (standing, 3rd from left) clarify issues and concerns regarding the RPCO V and PPMIU’s workflow.

(From left) RPCO V Business Development Specialist Victoria Eugene S. Florece and I-Build Component Head Engr. Arnie C. Ilan share their insights about the RPCO V and PPMIUs’ strengths and weaknesses in PRDP implementation during the South Luzon Cluster Year-End Assessment and Planning held on November 25-28, 2014 at the Citystate Asturias Hotel in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.