The Cordillera Administrative Region has a total of P146. 49 million in its enterprise portfolio to include seven start-up enterprises, 10 for upgrading/expansion, and 35 for rehabilitation/restoration.

Start-up enterprise subprojects are newly established enterprises; subprojects for upgrading/expansion are existing enterprises of proponent groups for expansion through the provision of additional equipment and construction of new facilities; and subprojects for rehabilitation/restoration are the small livelihood projects intended for calamity-stricken areas.

Recent report show that the I-REAP (Enterprise Development) component covers 21 completed enterprise subprojects, 10 above 50% progress, seven with less than 50% progress, 12 under procurement, and two in the pipeline.

Bulk of the completed subprojects are microenterprise subprojects (P1-3million) on livestock and highland vegetable production. The rest are small (P3-5million) and medium-scale (P5-50million) enterprise subprojects worth over P13 million. These enterprise subprojects are in support to the production, processing and marketing of regional priority commodities such as coffee, heirloom rice, cardava banana, carabao mango, and white potato. 68 farmer cooperatives and associations composed of 10,321 individual farmer-members or 7,135 households will benefit from these ventures.

In a recent development, LGU counterparts from the different provinces and municipalities of the Cordillera convened for a coordination meeting to assess the accomplishments of completed and ongoing I-REAP subprojects.

“This activity is timely for us to discuss how far have we accomplished and hopefully be able to provide possible solutions to recurring concerns with regards I-REAP subproject implementation,” said Jocelyn W. Beray, I-REAP component head of the PRDP Regional Project Coordination Office-CAR (RPCO-CAR).

During the activity, Provincial and Municipal Project Management and Implementing Units presented the status of I-REAP subprojects in their respective areas. Queries on financial and procurement concerns were raised. As such, consultants from the RPCO-CAR presented updates with regards financial disbursements and liquidations as well as updates/changes on the Harmonized Procurement Guidelines.

Out of the 50 approved subprojects, Benguet has the highest number of I-REAP subprojects with 19 enterprise subprojects, followed by Abra with 12 and Mt. Province with 9. In terms of cost, Ifugao is the highest grosser among the provinces with P27.22 million for four (4) small-scale enterprise subprojects, followed by Mt. Province with P24.33 million for four small-scale and five microenterprise subprojects.### Elvy Taquio (DA PRDP RPCO-CAR)