City of San Fernando, PAMPANGA – The Regional Project Coordination Office (RPCO 3) together with the Project Support Office (PSO) North Luzon of the Department of Agriculture – Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) conducted a hybrid meeting (in-person and remote) to discuss targets for the 4th quarter and assess the progress of financial disbursement held on October 8, 2021, at the DA Regional Field Office (RFO III) Conference Room, here.

RPCO 3 Action Officer Gil David stressed the collective efforts to address the remaining target disbursement and to fast-track the issuance of No Objection Letter (NOL 1) to some proposed subprojects under Additional Financing 2 (AF-2).

RPCO 3 Regional Project Director Dr. Eduardo L. Lapuz Jr. expressed the need for a meeting to gauge the advancement of disbursement after refocusing and retargeting likewise to discern significant contributions in the accomplishment of the whole RPCO 3.

“I saw the necessity for this meeting since the year is about to end. We made some commitments and created catch-up plans. There are targets that we still need to achieve,” Lapuz added.

For this year, I-BUILD Component Head Engineer Elmer Tubig presented the ‘I-BUILD Physical Accomplishment’ and stated their actual disbursement as of September is at P164.86 million with an efficiency rate of 62.98%. The I-BUILD assured to increase efficiency rate by the end of the year at 80%.

Meanwhile, I-REAP Business Development Officer (BDO) Glory Ann Herrera tackled that there are 159 I-REAP subprojects, with a total project cost of P395. 27 million.

In terms of financial status, the I-REAP has a total obligation of P281, 286, 985 and disbursement of P254, 029,277.13 with a rate of 90.31%. The remaining balance to be disbursed is P26,807,886.87.

Joining the meeting remotely, PSO North Luzon Deputy Project Director Elma Mananes encouraged both the I-BUILD and I-REAP to speed up the disbursement under the Original Loan (OL) by 2022, taking into consideration to initiate a strategy to catch up on the financial aspect of the project since some funds will lapse by the end of December this year.

While the pandemic continues to pose challenges, the RPCO 3 will constantly monitor physical and financial progress with the joint efforts made by each component and unit to achieve targets in preparation for the next World Bank Mission.

By: Ma. Reina Len Luna, InfoACE RPCO 3