TACLOBAN CITY—The Leyte Provincial Board unanimously approved the P7.3-billion 2018 Annual Investment Plan (AIP), where over half of the amount is allocated for economic services aimed at reducing poverty incidence in the province to a single digit in 2022.
“Our AIP in the province is primarily an anti-poverty budget. This is anchored on our flagship program, which is Leyte EconoMICS,” Leyte Gov. Leopoldo Dominico Petilla told the BusinessMirror. “We are targeting to lower poverty incidence to a single digit by 2022.”
AIP constitutes the indicative yearly expenditure requirements of the province for programs, projects and activities, consisting of the annual capital expenditure and the regular operating requirements.
Based on the AIP proposal submitted to the provincial board, P4 billion or 54 percent of the total budget will be earmarked for economic services, P1.9 billion or 27 percent for social services, P1.3 billion or 18 percent for general public services and P100 million for school-education fund.
Leyte Vice Gov. Carlo Loreto said the economic services component will mean a direct pump priming for the marginalized farmers and fishers in the form of agriculture implements, planting materials and interventions at the barangay level.
“This is a very pro-poor investment,” Loreto said. “The concept is very different from the usual. We are using a bottom-up budgeting.”
“You improve the livelihood and opportunities of the people on the ground so that when they improve, the economy improves, as well,” he said.
Poverty incidence in Leyte stood at 23.6 percent in 2015. The original Leyte EconoMICS program of the province targets to lower poverty incidence to 15 percent by 2022.
But Petilla said lowering the poverty incidence further to a single digit is possible by sustaining an investment program that will directly benefit the poor.
Leyte EconoMICS is the implementation of the Marshall Plan of the province that was drawn after the devastation of Supertyphoon Yolanda. It targets far-flung communities where the highest poverty incidence occurs, all of which were former strongholds of insurgents in the province.
Under the program, farmer-beneficiaries are grouped into associations and undergo a 16-week seasonlong training on high-value vegetable production as an initial step. This is followed by various interventions in livestock, fisheries and nonagriculture skills training to empower them to become active members of the community.
The program adopts a holistic and community-based approach to alleviate poverty, making these poor farmer-beneficiaries productive and skilled in agriculture mainstreamed with social services, disaster-risk reduction, environment and solid-waste management, and infrastructure-support facilities.
Petilla said the budget to finance the AIP will be sourced from the general fund of the province, 20 percent of its annual internal revenue allotment, school-education fund.
He added additional funds will be sourced from national programs like the Conditional Matching Grant to Provinces (CMGP) Fund of the Department of Interior and Local Government. CMGP, formerly known as Kalsada program, have funds for road repair, rehabilitation and improvement.
Petilla said some of the projects under the AIP could be funded through the rehabilitation fund of the different national government agencies as part of their rehabilitation program.