Select members and officials of Barangays Kaganhao, Banogbog, Caganhao, Apoingon, and Maybo attended a two-day Citizen Monitoring Tool Training facilitated by the National, Cluster, and Regional Offices of the Philippine Rural Development Project in Boac, Marinduque, February 14-15, 2024.

On the first day of the training, PRDP discussed the following concepts to familiarize the recipients with the items they should watch out for during the implementation of the subproject: Management Support System, Contract Review Processes, Inspection and Testing Procedures, Document Control Procedures, Operation and Maintenance Procedures, and Social and Environmental Safeguards aspects like the use of the Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) and Applied Geotagging Technology (AGT).

Ireneo Panabang, NPCO Rural Infrastructure Engineer, spearheaded day2 of the CMT Training as the team proceeded to the site of the “Rehabilitation/Improvement of Brgy. Kaganhao-Bonogbog Farm to Market Road” to get hands-on experience in the monitoring of the subproject. Aspects like proper waste disposal, existence of warning signs and barricades, and embankment (among others) were monitored using the Citizen Monitoring Tool Notebook.

Nestor Paes Rabe, Kaganhao Barangay Captain, expressed that they will be able to use and apply their learnings from the CMT Training to existing and forthcoming infrastructure projects in their barangay.

“Napakalaking bagay po ang aming natutunan hindi lamang po dito sa ating project na bigay ng PRDP kundi sa lahat ng project na daradating sa aming barangay ay maia-apply namin itong pagsasanay. Bilang namumuno sa barangay at beneficiary, ituturing po namin ito na sariling amin. At kung ano man po ‘yung kaunti na hindi natin nagugustuhan o mali sa ating napag-aralan, eh talaga pong sisitahin natin yan. At dapat po silang managot sa kanilang ginawa na hindi naaayon sa ating napag-aralan,” said Rabe.

(Our learnings from this training is a big help not just in our PRDP project but for all the coming projects to our barangay as well. As leader and beneficiary, we will make sure to treat this FMR as our own. And if there will be things that are against what we learned today, we will make sure to point those out. They should be held accountable for actions that are against the standards we learned today.)

Meanwhile, Barangay Banogbog Captain Adelaida Rodil claimed that the CMT training empowered as she previously wasn’t aware of their rights as subproject beneficiary.

“Ito po ay dating balewala lang sa akin, di ko alam kung karapatan ba naming magsita, sa ngayon po ay alam ko na ang mga patakaran at pwede na kaming mag-supervise ng aming proyekto,” stated Rodil.

(I didn’t care about these things before, I didn’t know if we had the right to speak. Now that we know the rules, we can freely supervise our project.)

The Citizen Monitoring Tool was developed by the PRDP to empower subproject recipients in taking part in the monitoring of their FMRs to make sure that the subprojects are completed on time and with good quality. # (Danica A. Brutas, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

PRDP together with Marinduque PPMIU and subproject beneficiaries of the “Rehabilitation/Improvement of Brgy. Kaganhao-Bonogbog Farm to Market Road” (Photo by Danica A. Brutas, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

PRDP together with Marinduque PPMIU and subproject beneficiaries of the “Rehabilitation/Improvement of Brgy. Kaganhao-Bonogbog Farm to Market Road”
(Photo by Danica A. Brutas, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

PRDP together with Marinduque PPMIU and subproject beneficiaries of the “Rehabilitation/Improvement of Brgy. Kaganhao-Bonogbog Farm to Market Road” (Photo by Danica A. Brutas, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

PRDP together with Marinduque PPMIU and subproject beneficiaries of the “Rehabilitation/Improvement of Brgy. Kaganhao-Bonogbog Farm to Market Road” (Photo by Danica A. Brutas, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

PRDP together with Marinduque PPMIU and subproject beneficiaries of the “Rehabilitation/Improvement of Brgy. Kaganhao-Bonogbog Farm to Market Road”
(Photo by Danica A. Brutas, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)

PRDP together with Marinduque PPMIU and subproject beneficiaries of the “Rehabilitation/Improvement of Brgy. Kaganhao-Bonogbog Farm to Market Road” (Photo by Danica A. Brutas, DA-PRDP MIMAROPA RPCO InfoACE Unit)