Angeles, Pampanga – After the successful review mission conducted by the World Bank for North Luzon, a clusterwide assessment was held to evaluate the said mission and to further look into each component’s concerns, as well as to discuss World Bank findings and their corresponding recommendations.

The coordination meeting was held on February 25 at Lewis Grand Hotel hosted by the Luzon A Project Support Office (PSO) and attended by the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO), Regional Project Coordination Offices (RPCOs) and selected provinces’ Provincial Program Management and Implementation Units (PPMIUs).

Regional Executive Director Andrew Villacorta said he personally chose the province of La Union as the venue for the first WB mission because of the current appalling status of the Balecbec-Basca Farm to Market Road (FMR). The 7.9 kilometer road and Balecbec bridge in Naguilan and Aringay in La Union is one of the two subprojects inspected by the WB team during the field visit last February 6, along with the Green Mango Production and Marketing Enterprise in Acao, Bawang.

It was agreed that the Provincial Program Management and Implementation Unit (PPMIU) of La Union will be revising the design of the Balecbec-Basca FMR such that a new bridge will be constructed as part of the proposed detour structure. Slope protection measures will also be included in the new design.

On the other hand, the Green Mango Production and Marketing Enterprise’ proponent group Province of La Union Mango Industry Inc. (PLUMIA) will be re-evaluated due to the ongoing conflict on the issue of the ownership of the land where the packing facility will be constructed.

Pedro Corpus, current owner of the land was recommended by the NPCO to sell the lot to the association, or to agree to a long-term lease agreement of at least 50 years. Otherwise, a new proponent group will take over or the subproject will be officially cancelled.

Some of the issues dealt with during the assessment meeting are the equity requirements and expansion of portfolio for the I-REAP component. The component has a total of 31 subprojects, two of which have been given the No Objection Letter (NOL). National Deputy Project Director Engr. Arnel de Mesa, however, pointed out the importance of quality over quantity. ”Binilin sa amin ng World Bank, mas okay na konti ang projects basta high-quality,” said de Mesa.

Revision of the I-BUILD operations manual, misconceptions of No I-REAP No I-BUILD Policy, improvement of the geo-tagging system, and a more intensive quality review are also among the concerns that were discussed.

In addition, Atty. Jennilyn Dawayan, Regional Technical Director for Research and Regulations pointed out the alarming cases of rebidding and limited contractors’ participation.

The World Bank team will come back in six months to commence another series of review missions in all four clusters. (Kayla Arceo)