A team of technical staff from the South Luzon Project Support Office (PSO) and the CALABARZON Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO) on August 23–26 inspected the potential sub-project sites in Laguna and Quezon for PRDP’s enterprise development (I-REAP) component.

“It is important that the engineers and SES specialists visit the project sites to see to it that the designs and costings are appropriate. This is to ensure that we can provide the proponent groups with relevant assistance for their enterprises based on the estimated project cost approved during the Regional Project Advisory Board review,” RPCO 4A Business Development Specialist Jeramel Valdez said.

The Corn Silage Production Facility of the Katipunan ng Kooperatibang Manggagatas Integrated Cooperative (KKMI) aims to supply corn silage for the dairy cattle of its members. While the dairy processing plant is located in Calauan, Laguna, the proposed P16.59 million-worth silage production will be set in San Pablo City, where the supply of raw materials will be sourced. The design and location of the silo in the proposed site were discussed with the proponent group and engineers from the provincial government.

PRDP South Luzon PSO Rural Infrastructure Engineer Ma. Concepcion Ordiales studies the engineering design for the guyabano puree processing facility in Tayabas City.

Tayabas City’s guyabano puree processing sub-project was also visited. The P0.80 million-worth sub-project would enable the Mangosteen Producers of Tayabas Association, Inc. (MAPROTAS) to produce 400 liters of guyabano puree monthly. The puree would be sold at P300 per liter. There was no available record on the volume of production when it was still a personal venture. Changes to the existing infrastructure were recommended to the proponent group by the PRDP technical team.

PRDP staff also inspected the proposed production site of the Samahan ng Mangingisda ng Barangay Malapad, Lubayat, at Pandan (SAMAMALUPA) in Real, Quezon for their processing of smoked fish (tinapa) microenterprise. The sub-project worth P0.79 million will increase the production of smoked fish sold in Real and in neighboring towns. Also one of the proponent group’s goals was to cater to the market in Metro Manila.

Engineers from the PSO and the RPCO went to the site of the proposed tinapa processing facility in Real, Quezon. It is one of the proposed microenteprise sub-projects in the region.

Valdez encouraged the City Administrator of Tayabas and the Municipal Planning and Development Officer of Real to submit proposals for larger I-REAP sub-projects. Currently, all sub-projects in the two localities are microenterprises.

“However, they must be based on available Value Chain Analyses and included in the Provincial Commodity Investment Plans of Quezon,” she said.

As of September 2016, CALABARZON has four I-REAP sub-projects with No Objection Letters and 18 I-REAP sub-projects in the pipeline. The proponent groups of the four recently approved microenterprises attended the I-REAP implementation training held on September 6–9. ### (Lawrence Albert A. Bariring, PRDP RPCO 4A InfoACE Unit)

RPCO 4A Deputy Regional Project Director Teodora Mamades (left) discusses the next steps for the LGUs in Cavite.