May 8, 2015

Providing various options and opportunities; this is what the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) would like to offer coconut farmers in Bicol, said Shandy M. Hubilla, Project Support Office (PSO) South Luzon Director. This was reiterated by Dr. Elena B. Delos Santos, PRDP Bicol focal person.

Hubilla and De Los Santos led the discussions during the Re-Orientation Meeting on PRDP with Bicol’s Regional Project Advisory Board (RPAB) held on May 5, 2015 at Alicia Hotel, Legazpi City. The meeting aims to re-orient the RPAB, an inter-agency team that reviews and approves proposed PRDP sub-projects (SPs) in the region, on the Project’s policies and guidelines, clarify issues and concerns and set policy directions in its implementation. Present during the meeting were the heads and representatives of several government agencies including Department of Trade and Industry Regional Office (RO) V Regional Director Jocelyn Lb. Blanco, Department of Science and Technology RO V Science Research Specialist II Sandro B. Noguera, and Regional Agriculture and Fishery Council Chairman V Jose R. Cordero. Legazpi City Engineer Orlando Rebato also attended the reorientation to learn how the city may avail of PRDP investments.

They underscored that through value-adding and developing village-level SPs under PRDP, farmers will have more opportunities to raise their income. This is consonant with the Projects’ development objectives to increase the income of farmers and establish a more market-oriented and climate-resilient agri-fishery sector in project areas. Highlighted during the Re-Orientation Meeting were Camarines Sur’s Coconut Sap Sugar Processing, Albay’s Coco Geonets Manufacturing Enterprise, and the Coco Water Processing Technology Pilot Testing and Business Incubation Project.

Hubilla provided an overview of PRDP as well as updates regarding its accomplishments and status of implementation in Bicol as of April 2015. Regional Project Coordination Office V component heads Aloha Gigi I. Bañaria, Engr. Arnie C. Ilan, and Adelina A. Losa also discussed the objectives, process flow, and status of PRDP’s major components namely the Investments in Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Plan (AFMP) Planning at the Local and National Levels (I-PLAN), Intensified Building Up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development (I-BUILD), and Investments in Rural Enterprises and Agriculture and Fisheries Productivity (I-REAP), respectively. Meanwhile, Social and Environmental Safeguards (SES) Unit Head Engr. Teodoro C. Eleda lectured on Implementation Support to PRDP (I-SUPPORT) consists of SES, Admin & Finance, Procurement, Geomapping, Monitoring and Evaluation, and InfoACE units.

Moreover, the RPAB agreed to capacitate people involved in Agro-industrial Enterprise Development, check the database of geotagged government projects prior to Infrastructure Development SP preparation, review, and approval to avoid criss-crossing projects, double funding, and quality issues, and promote projects that follow the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) based on the value chain analysis.

The RPAB had its first Orientation on PRDP on August 1, 2013. After seven RPAB meetings, the latest of which was on April 8, 2015, the advisory body has already approved 18 Infrastructure Development SPs costing over two billion pesos in Albay, Camarines Sur, and Camarines Norte and over P21-million-worth Agro-Industrial Enterprise Development SPs which are projected to boost rural development in Bicol. (Annielyn L. Baleza, I-SUPPORT InfoACE Unit, DA-RAFIS 5

Project Support Office (PSO) Luzon B Director Shandy M. Hubilla provides the RPAB an overview of PRDP as well as updates regarding its accomplishments and status of implementation in Bicol as of April 2015.