“Ang proyektong ito ay 100% sa inyo (You have 100% ownership over this subproject).”

This is how the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) South Luzon Project Support Office Deputy Project Director Shandy Hubilla reminded the project stakeholders of their responsibility during his welcome remarks in the Citizen Monitoring Tool (CMT) Training.

The PRDP South Luzon Cluster conducted the said training in Lobo, Batangas for the stakeholders of the 8.06-kilometer “Concreting of Farm to Market Road (FMR), Barangay Olo-olo, Mabilog na Bundok, and Nagtaluntong” on August 29-30. It is also the second run of CMT training for the CALABARZON region.

The CMT is one of the Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) tools used by the PRDP to promote proactive involvement of stakeholders in ensuring the subproject implementation follows PRDP’s specifications and standards at the same time meets the target timeline.

Thirty barangay officials, project affected persons, and municipal staff attended the two-day training which covered the topics on infrastructure standards, social and environmental safeguards, and applied geotagging—an essential tool for project documentation.

In particular, the infrastructure standards focus on quality assurance elements namely, management support system, contract review processes, inspection and testing procedures, document control procedures, and operation and maintenance procedures. Meanwhile, safeguards framework policies support sustainable development and risk management to minimize environmental and social adverse impacts.

Lobo’s Municipal Engineer Anacorito Adoyo stated that aside from eliciting beneficiaries’ sense of ownership, the CMT training teaches the value of responsible project implementation. Itinuturo rito [sa training] na we should respect the environment as we construct the road. Yung social din, yung mga taong nakapalibot dito gayun din yung respeto sa kanilang mga puna (The training teaches that we should not put the environmental and social aspects at stake as we construct the road. We should respect the people’s welfare and value their concerns),” he said.

The participants also commended the importance of geotagging in monitoring project activities to maintain good works’ integrity. “Kapag naka-geotag kasi [yung FMR] sure na di ka nadadaya. Kung ano talaga yung progreso o kung hindi maayos yung nagawa ng contractor, nairereport ng husay (Malpractice is avoided through the geotagging tool. The progress and any erroneous works committed are being reported),” said Vergilio Magtibay, Barangay Chairperson of Nagtaluntong.

Moreover, Rogelio Lontoc, barangay councilor of Mabilog na Bundok, shared their efforts in engaging the residents in the process of monitoring the road implementation. M&E Officer Arvin San Juan of the PSO South Luzon lauded this practice and emphasized the need for the LGU officials to initiate regular consultations to gather residents’ concerns and observations. He advised them to come up with a consolidated report per barangay.

After the discussions, the participants grouped themselves per barangay and applied their learning during the hands-on activities in the Lobo FMR site. The PRDP PSO and RPCO team guided the participants in using the monitoring form and geotagging technology.  ### (Rio Christine Bustamante, DA-PRDP South Luzon PSO InfoACE Unit)

Citizen Monitoring Tool (CMT) training participants from Brgy. Mabilog na Bundok apply their learning on Applied Geotagging Tool during the field visit in the FMR. (Photo by Ana Francesca Chavez)

CALABARZON RPCO Rural Infrastructure Engineer ER Espina explains the correct construction materials to be used on canals to the Citizen Monitoring Tool (CMT) training participants during the field workshop in the Lobo FMR. (Photo by Lawrence Albert Bariring)

The Deputy Project Director of PRDP South Luzon PSO welcomes the participants and reminds them of their responsibility over the FMR. (Photo by Ana Francesca Chavez)