THE Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Rural Development Project (DA-PRDP) is conducting a nationwide information caravan to fast-track information dissemination on infrastructure development priority scheme with local government units (LGUs).
The prioritization scheme is a tool designed for the project to rationalize the selection of best subprojects from a long list of proposals from LGUs under the Intensive Building Up of Infrastructure and Logistics Development, or IBUILD component.
“With the additional PRDP financing of P8.4 billion from the World Bank, we need to identify projects that will provide the highest social and economic benefits with technical and economic viability,” PRDP Mindanao Director Ricardo M. Oñate Jr. said.
For Mindanao cluster, Region 10 recently completed the rounds in its five provinces—Bukidnon, Camiguin, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Misamis Oriental. The other five regions—Regions 9, 11, 12,13 and Autonomous Regions in Muslim Mindanao—are scheduled to roll out on the second week of March.
“This prioritization scheme will increase diversity in our IBUILD projects, where our focus will not only be more on farm-to-market roads [FMRs], but development of other infrastructure,” Oñate said.
The activity includes presentation of the prioritization-scheme framework, different prioritization criteria and scoring system. Priority is given to projects that will reach 117 points with a maximum of 233 points, while automatic priority worth 300 points is given to an LGU with no prior involvement in PRDP; LGU having already submitted IBUILD proposals but yet to attain approval of any proposed subproject; and LGU with approved IREAP subproject, but no IBUILD subproject. A bonus of 10 points is also given for climate-resiliency plan.
DA 10 Regional Director Carlene C. Collado, during the info caravan in Bukidnon, encouraged all the participants from municipal and provincial LGUs to work on their proposals in order to implement more projects in rural areas of Northern Mindanao.