The province of Nueva Ecija currently takes the lead in having the most approved infrastructure subprojects within the North Luzon cluster, as gleaned from the online data of the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP)’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Unit.

With the joint efforts of the project offices and the local government unit, 13 infra subprojects have been approved amounting to P137.67 million. Among these is a P50.2 million farm-to-market road in San Jose City that is substantially completed.

The province also ranks fourth in terms of having the most approved enterprises – amounting to P30.58 million.

With this, municipalities from the first district have further expressed their interest with the Department of Agriculture’s World Bank-funded project.

Through an orientation led by the Project Support Office (PSO) Luzon A, representatives from Natividad, San Jose and Quezon were familiarized on the necessary processes under the PRDP from project proposing, compliances, financing and project implementation, held last November 23-24, 2016 in Quezon, Nueva Ecija.

PSO Luzon A Deputy Project Director Elma Mananes discussed the overview of the Project, covering its components, science-based tools, structure, general flow and objectives, among others. Likewise, project updates of the North Luzon cluster were also presented.

To be further equipped with the Project, PSO representatives also presented the components and units’ general overview and their corresponding compliances, starting from the I-PLAN, I-BUILD, I-REAP, as well as support units such as the Geo-mapping and Governance Unit (GGU), Social and Environmental Safeguards (SES), Finance, Procurement, and Economist.

PRDP is a DA special project that aims to establish a modern, climate-smart, market oriented agri-fishery sector. Among the subprojects accepted and implemented by PRDP are farm-to-market roads, bridges, communal irrigation systems, potable water systems and enterprises that support the provinces’ priority commodities. (Kayla Arceo, PRDP North Luzon)

(L-R) Deputy Project Director Elma Mananes, Rural Infrastructure Engineer Shiedel Delicano, I-REAP Component Head Bernard Paningbatan and Planning Officer Janelyn Golingo present to the participating LGUs the compliances needed for smoother approval and implementation of subprojects.

(L-R) Geographic Information System Officer Romille David, Economist James Sabio and Environment Safeguard Specialist Peter Gonzales discuss their respective units’ relevance to the Project and how they may effective aide the system of implementation.