The Regional Project Coordination Office 1 (RPCO 1), led by I-SUPPORT Component Head Sharon A. Viloria, briefed the newly-elected Mayor Larisa Foronda of the Municipality of Vintar in Ilocos Norte about the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) on July 13, 2016.

Very keen on participating in the project, initially, the Municipality of Vintar is eyeing to propose the Rehabilitation of Tamdagan-Tapao, a 32.2 kilometer road with bridges which traverses eight barangays, and amounts to P458 million.

The subproject was previously validated by PRDP infrastructure consultants last April 2015. Upon evaluation, the consultants made recommendations such as shortening of the subproject proposal since the preparation of the feasibility study for the subproject will take too much time and/or to choose another subproject site that do not lie on a river bed because based on their project proposal, the project requires construction of major bridges crossing the river bed and this is a DPWH kind of project and cannot be funded under PRDP.

With said evaluation, the preparation of the subproject proposal was withheld for several months and partly because of the 2016 national elections. The briefing conducted helped in providing guidance to the municipality on what adjustments they can do to qualify for the project.

After a short project orientation with Vintar’sLocal Chief Executive and department heads, the RPCO 1 team together with the municipality’s engineers and assessors re-validated the site. The Municipality of Vintar proposes to rehabilitate a portion of the original proposal, heeding the recommendations of the project consultants.

Meanwhile, Engr. Ma. Teresa Bacnat re-assured the Municipality of Vintar in providing the required counterpart of the proposed subproject. Under the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP), LGUs who will implement infrastructure subprojects are required to provide 10% cash counterpart.

According to Ms. Bacnat, the Province of Ilocos Norte can provide equal amount of counterpart to that of the 10% counterpart of the Municipality to fund the subproject.

With the guidance of the RPCO, Vintar MLGU now eyes to finish their infrastructure subproject proposal under PRDP in the following months. (Ilocos InfoACE)