Four I-REAP Component subprojects in Central Luzon acquired the endorsement of the Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB) last April 24 in Angeles City, Pampanga, during the conduct of the second RPAB Meeting on the Approval of Enterprise Development Subprojects for 2015. The RPAB members, composed of the regional chief executives of the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), approved the validation of the four subprojects amounting to P 87, 794, 686.50.

Through the I-REAP Component, the Philippine Rural Development Project aims to engage broad sections of the agricultural sector of the country in the production of marketable surplus, by means of investments in strategic segments of priority commodity value chains. For Central Luzon, the approved Enterprise Development subprojects are as follows:

DA Region 3 Director and RPAB Chairman Dr. Andrew B. Villacorta commended the concerted effort of the region’s Provincial Project Management Implementing Units (PPMIUs) and Proponent Groups, who presented their business plans that are designed to support their respective priority commodities. “Double your time, double your effort, so that you can propose and attain more subprojects that can help in sustaining your priority commodities,” said Dr. Villacorta, addressing the PPMIUs and reminding them to continue conducting value-chain analyses in order to come-up with more proposed I-REAP subprojects for their provinces. (Mark Erron San Mateo, InfoACE RPCO 3)