MEXICO, Pampanga—The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Thursday it already finished the concrete pavement of two separate barangay roads in this town, with funding allotment of P3,247,365.38.
Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II funded these infrastructure projects through the Bottom-Up Budgeting (BUB) Program.
Myrvie Fabia, provincial director of the DILG, said the paved road of 340 linear meters from Barangays Cauayan to Buenavista amounted to P1,498,221.93 and the other improved and newly concreted 400-linear-meter road in barangays Laug and Santa Maria totaled P1,749,143.45.
The local officials and residents here, headed by Mayor Roy Manalastas, expressed gratitude to Roxas and DILG Regional and Provincial staff for providing easy access to progress for its citizenry through the improvement of local roads.
Residents here said that, with the completion of these local roads, they could quickly transport the farmers’ produce to the marketplace and other trading posts.
Fabia said the two farm-to-market road projects were part of the P15-million 2014 BUB Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan (LPRAP) formulated by the Local Poverty Reduction Action Team (LPRAT) signed by Manalastas as chairman; Roel D. Sotto (Parents-Teachers Association-South District), as cochairman; and two other signatories from Civil Society Organizations, led by Analyn D. Calayaan, parent-leader of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, and Joven T. Mariano of the Municipal Agriculture and Fisheries Council.
Fabia explained that the BUB Program, which started in 2013, is aimed at making planning and budgeting processes of both national and local governments more participatory, transparent and responsive to the urgent needs of the people, especially the poor and marginalized, through genuine involvement of grassroots organizations and community groups. “It hopes to institute budget reform, thus LPRATs were formed through the local executive order, composed of equal number of representatives from CSOs elected by themselves through an assembly, and local government unit officers, headed by the local chief executive,” Fabia said.