BUUG, Zamboanga Sibugay, March 30 (PIA) – The Citizen’s Monitoring Team (CMT) is now equipped to monitor management and construction activities for the Agutayan farm-to-market road (FMR) after they completed the recently conducted 2-day training by the Regional Project Coordination Office IX (RPCO9).

The Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of RPCO9 headed by Babyline Omboy facilitated in the CMT formation which composed of barangay officials and leaders of people’s organization (POs).  The CMT’s task was to look into the quality assurance elements in the concreting of more than P90-Million Agutayan FMR that covers 3.42 kilometers FMR with a 28.50 linear meter bridge connecting barangays Talamimi and Agutayan.

Equipped with the citizen’s monitoring tool adopted by Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP), both teams of chairwoman Nenita Andujar (Barangay Talamimi) and chairman Joel Sedoon (Agutayan) agreed to submit their monitoring report every 15th of the month based on the construction activities undertaken by DL Construction within their respective jurisdictions.

Rural Infrastructure Engineer for Zamboanga Sibugay Junars Maghuyop emphasized the importance of the citizens to ensure that the subprojects are implemented on time, in good quality at the least cost.  The monitoring tools consist of 5 parts: 1. Management Support System, 2) Contract Review Process, 3) Inspection and Testing Procedures, 4) Document Control Procedures, and 5) Operation and Maintenance Procedures.

Associate Social and Environmental Safeguards Officer Rammel Lasagas also discussed the Grievance Redress Mechanism where citizens may raise their grievance or appreciation about the project.

One vital tool in monitoring was the PRDP camera developed by the Geo-mapping and Governance Unit  (GGU) is known to be the “eyes” of World Bank that takes charge in posting geotagged photos of the actual physical status of the subproject.  The GGU is known to be the “eyes” of World Bank that takes charge in posting geotagged photos of the actual physical status of the subproject that can be seen virtually at www.prdp.da.gov.ph.  GIS Data Officer Christopher Briones installed the PRDP camera and coached the CMT members how to use it.

When asked of their impressions about the training, chairwoman Andujar thanked DA-PRDP for through the CMT training, they became aware of their obligations in ensuring quality and durability of their subproject.  “Duna diay mi obligasyon  sa pagbantay ug pagpakabana nga maayo pag-implementar sa maong project. (We learned that we have our duty to guard and be concerned for the correct implementation of the project),” she said.

“We the officials of barangay Agutayan have waited for this kind of training so that each one of us  would become aware of our obligations being the beneficiaries of the road,” Agutayan Sedoon chairman said.

I-BUILD component head Juanito C. Taripe, Jr. highlighted the active and dynamic participation of the group.  He stressed that the FMR is designed to last at least 20 years and this can be attained through their vigilance and ensure that construction design and specifications are followed by the contractor.

“Now that you are already trained, may we count on you as our partners in ensuring the quality and durability of our road to last at least 20 years,” Taripe told the CMT.
When completed, the P90-Million Agutayan FMR with bridge component will ease up that ease up access difficulty of 270 farming households and ultimately uplift their living conditions.   This road segment was anchored on rubber, coconut, corn, banana and vegetables.