TACLOBAN CITY—Barely a month remaining before the deadline, the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Eastern Visayas has still to allocate P1.6-billion of its Yolanda rehabilitation fund for agriculture.
Apparently, the DA is having problems obligating the funds due to the inability of local government units (LGUs) to produce the needed documentary requirements partly because of political bickering on the LGU level.
Newly installed DA Regional Director Salvador Diputado said of the P3.6-billion Yolanda Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Program (YRRP) funds downloaded in April 2017, only P2 billion has been allotted to different LGUs that reported damage from Supertyphoon Yolanda. The amount will be spent for repairs of farming and postharvest facilities, as well as infrastructure that will benefit the farmers.
Diputado said the remaining P1.6 billion has to be obligated before December 30 this year. Otherwise, the money will be realigned for the rehabilitation of war-ravaged Marawi City.
“The projects may be implemented next year. We just need to obligate them first before the deadline,” he said.
Diputado added among the most common and very basic requirements that LGUs could not fulfill is a resolution coming from the municipal council that will indicate the project that will be funded and the willingness of the LGU to undertake it.
However, he said, there are many instances when the mayor is a political rival of the vice mayor, who controls the municipal council. And since the mayors normally get the credit for projects implemented under their watch, political rivals tend not to cooperate.
“This is a problem that is very basic, it should not be difficult to produce a municipal council resolution if officials in the local government level work together for the benefit of their constituents,” he said.
Diputado, who assumed the position of DA regional director only this month, added he is working closely with the regional technical directors in finding ways so that all the money will be obligated before the end of the year.
“This has an impact on our overall performance as an office,” he said.
The DA regional field office hired seven project development officers (PDOs) that will be deployed to assist LGUs in their documentary requirements in a bid to prop up support in the seemingly dragging and snail-paced submission of documents.
Diputado said the seven PDOs will be assigned to priority areas where the LGU can hardly prepare their agriculture-related project plans.
He said if the PDOs will be able to deliver their tasks, the DA will be able to bring down to unobligated YRRP funds to between P100 million and P150 million by the end of the year. He added the DA is already drawing up plans on how this amount will be spent so that the whole YRRP funds is obligated.
Based on feedback from the field, these LGUs commonly pointed out the lack of technical expertise among LGU personnel who will handle the preparation and packaging of appropriate proposals. This also hinders them from prompt and timely compliance of the required documents.
Diputado said he hopes the deployment of PDOs will greatly help the LGUs in addressing their issues and concerns, including the conduct of validation and review of submitted documents, supervision of YRRP-funded projects and submission of monthly monitoring and accomplishment reports, among others.
Diputado also appealed to the LGU officials to provide PDOs with temporary accommodation, food and even vehicle to efficiently discharge their tasks and responsibilities.
“We are very optimistic that our deployed PDOs could really help and make a big difference. Their primordial role is to avert any possibility for the remaining YRRP funds to be diverted to Marawi City, which is also in dire need of financial help from the national government,” Diputado said.