On the second day of the 12th World Bank Implementation Support Mission to PRDP, the Mindanao Cluster took center stage as it presented their achievements in subproject implementation during the past six months. For the third time since the COVID 19 pandemic all but halted travel and restricted mass gatherings, the mid-year review was held online. Present during the afternoon’s activities were representatives from the World Bank Team headed by Team Task Leader Eli Weiss and World Bank Agriculture and Food Practice Manager Dina Umali-Deininger, representatives from the National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) led by Deputy Project Director Shandy M. Hubilla, as well as the teams from the different Regional Project Coordination Offices in Mindanao .

In his welcome message, PSO Mindanao Project Director Engr. Ricardo Oñate, Jr. said that even though this would be the third time that this meeting would be conducted online and not face-to-face, the Mindanao Cluster is joined together by one heart and one mind, determined to meet their set objectives for project implementation.

“Crisis calls for innovations and commitment and we are proud to say that in the Mindanao Cluster, commitment and innovation has been at the heart of our success which we will continue throughout this pandemic and beyond,” Oñate said.

Much of the success of the Cluster lay with the maximization of the use of online platforms and PRDP developed tools for monitoring subproject implementation. Through this, the different teams throughout the six regions of Mindanao, were able to still communicate and coordinate their actions despite travel restrictions and the threat to their own health and safety.

World Bank Task Team Leader Eli Weiss gives his message and appreciation to the presentation of Mindanao Cluster.

Deputy Project Director for the Mindanao Cluster Noel T. Provido started the Cluster presentation by revisiting the featured proponent group in the last mission, Household Multipurpose Cooperative (HMPC) marking the cooperative’s developments towards expanding and diversifying their business since the last review.

DPD Provido reports that despite the restrictions caused by COVID 19, the Cluster was still able to improve on its performance from the previous review. In the area of institutionalizing and mainstreaming commodity investment plans (CIPs), the translation of 33 value chain analysis which was translated in 33 priority commodity investment plans which in turn have given rise to 302 infrastructure subprojects worth PhP 19.69B, 125 enterprise subprojects worth PhP 784.84M and 1,111 non-PRDP subprojects worth PhP42.75 B. In fact for this period under review, the Cluster recorded a total of P40.83 billion leveraged Non-PRDP investments which is an increase of 5.35B from the last support mission.

In the area of infrastructure development, the Cluster has completed 147 total subprojects worth a total of PhP6.35B, with another 43 subprojects worth PhP4.41B still in various stages of completion.

On enterprise development, the Cluster completed a total of 57 subprojects with a total investment of PhP 239.80 M benefitting 106 proponent groups or 11,731 individual beneficiaries.

Group virtual photo after the Mindanao Cluster presentation joined by the World Bank Team, National Project Coordination Office, Project Support Office Mindanao, and Regional Project Coordination Offices.

DPD Provido said that the 1,047,035 beneficiaries, which he called Mindanao’s “Plantliners” , were the Cluster’s motivation for continuing their work even with the lingering threat of the global pandemic. This he says can only be accomplished by a concerted effort of everyone comprising the Mindanao Team.

“Crisis brings people & communities together, coming together and helping each other, realizing how strong we are together.” (Joseph John Palarca | PSO Mindanao)