With the Philippine Rural Development Project’s vision to implement climate-resilient infrastructures in the rural countryside, rigid measures are being followed to ensure quality and sustainability of subprojects.

The province of Aurora emerged as North Luzon’s best implementer under I-BUILD for its subproject ‘Construction and Improvement of San Joaquin – Cadayakan Farm to Market Road’ in Maria Aurora, during North Luzon cluster’s general assembly last December 14 in Angeles, Pampanga.

This is in accordance with the criteria consisting of physical progress, documentation, operations, maintenance and compliance to Social and Environmental Safeguards.

“There are three things that we controlled in implementing this subproject,” said Engr. Edison Cortez, resident engineer and contractor of the farm-to-market road.

“First is the quality control, in which we ensure that all materials to be used including the workmanship are in accordance to the specifications given by PRDP. We also considered the time control and cost control.”

Special recognition was also awarded to the joint venture of the Edfrobon Construction Services Inc. and Tribu Design Construction and to Engr. Antonette Calilung, the Rural Infrastructure Engineer of the project.

Estrella Tilo, a councilor in Barangay Cadayakan, Maria Aurora said that the involvement of the citizens is a factor in the smooth implementation of the road.

“Some citizens here join us in watching over the construction, checking if the process being done is correct and complete. We seldom leave this place. Most of the time, we are present here. So monitoring is being done efficiently,” said Tilo.

Barangay Captain Benigno Balagso also lauded PRDP’s initiative to involve the residents in the construction. Through citizens’ monitoring, erroneous activities of the contractor are immediately being reported to them, and they report these to the higher authority for appropriate action.

“We do not have any doubts in the quality of this FMR because we personally witnessed and monitored the construction. We have not seen any major malpractice by the contractor. In fact, they even exceed their expected output and timeline,” said Balagso.

He likewise stressed on the importance of the Citizens Monitoring Manual. “The manual helped us a lot, especially for citizens who are not familiar with the mixing of concrete. The manual also includes the measurement of the elevation of the road. We tackled those items during the Citizens Monitoring Training, so we know those items specified in the book.”

Jaime Rosales, the Provincial Project Management Implementing Unit (PPMIU) Head of Aurora stated that the tools introduced by PRDP such as Geo-tagging and the use of the Expanded Vulnerability and Suitability Assessment (E-VSA) and Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) are now starting to be adopted in the province.

“We have started to take steps in order to maintain the continuity of the utilization, initially done by PRDP. With these tools, we can be assured that the project implementation is done right and in accordance to the plans,” said Rosales in an earlier interview.

The San Joaquin – Cadayakan is a 2.3 kilometer PRDP-funded road amounting to P25 million that is now providing benefits to 3,186 residents and 719 households. (Kayla Arceo, PSO InfoACE Unit)