While the other provinces of the region has taken it a point to fast track the packaging of proposals to be funded under the World Bank backed Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), the province of Batanes is seen as lagging in formulating proposals for the organic garlic industry which was evident in the latest regional project performance review.

It is mainly for this reason that representatives from the Regional Project Coordinating Office 02 (RPCO 02) conducted a re-orientation and workshop for the Batanes Provincial Project Management and Implementing Unit (PPMIU) to rally the finalization of the Value Chain Analysis (VCA) for organic garlic, Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) and the packaging of sub-projects for PRDP funding last May 12-15, 2015 at the DA-Batanes Experiment Station, Basco, Batanes.

Likewise, said workshop provided the opportunity for the group to obtain the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed by the Honorable Governor Vicente S. Gato as required by PRDP National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) and the World Bank.

For his part, Governor Gato in a statement has committed full support to the implementation of the project. “The signing of the MOA signifies our full intent to cope with other provinces in terms of proposing various subprojects to be funded under the PRDP. We shall dedicate a significant portion of our time and efforts to finish the PCIP for organic garlic.”

Dr. Freddie B. Corsino, InfoAce Unit Head and Action Officer of the RPCO stressed that the MOA is the primary document to officially enroll a provincial Local Government Unit (LGU) with PRDP while the PCIP serves as the basis for all subprojects to be funded under the PRDP. From here, Batanes can get on board and start finalizing the VCA and PCIP.

The workshop which was attended by designated officials comprising Batanes PPMIU tackled the VCA matrix of constraints and opportunities, the finalization and approval of Batanes PCIP and the subsequent processes of packaging subproject proposals for funding under the I-BUILD and I-REAP components.

Regional Technical Director and RPCO Focal Person Lorenzo M. Caranguian emphasized that the VCA is an important tool in identifying the role of stakeholders in the identification and packaging of the priority interventions and the suitable sub-projects with respect to their constraints and needs. From the VCA, the PCIP for every commodity is derived.

The group agreed on a timeline to submit the final draft of the VCA and PCIP to the RPCO 02 for submission to the Project Support Office (PSO) no later than the end of June, 2015.(Jaycee Capalungan, InfoACE RPCO2)