PRDP gets fresh R9-B funding from World Bank

DAVAO CITY — The Philippine Rural Development Program (PRDP) received a fresh funding worth R9.068 billion from the World Bank (WB) approved last May this year for the infrastructure projects, an official said.

Engr. Danilo Alesna, deputy project director PRDP-Mindanao, said in an interview on Wednesday they have yet to determine what infrastructure projects will receive funding from the agency in September 2018.

He said at least 171 approved projects under their Intensified Building Up of Infrastructure and Logistics for Development (I-BUILD) program in Mindanao, comprising about 40 percent of PRDP’s projects in the country, have been approved as of July 5 this year.

Of the 171 projects, he said there were at least 60 completed, 77 ongoing, and 34 under procurement process.

He said the majority of the PRDP projects went to Mindanao because it has a wider scope compared to Luzon and Visaya, has more experienced technical people to assist local government units in making proposals, and the island has more areas that need help.

He said they follow the specific guidelines of the World Bank and the Provincial Commodity Investment Plan (PCIP) in the selection of the project proposals of the LGUs in the target areas.

He said that all the PCIPs are focused on agricultural production in Mindanao.

“We don’t go to areas like mining and we don’t go to reserved areas because we mainly focus on agricultural production areas, and when you say agricultural production. So, outside of those agricultural commodities, we never intend to intervene,” he added.

Under the IBUILD, he said emerging outcomes include 54 percent reduction of travel time; 13 percent reduction of hauling cost, 189 percent increase in traffic; 15.2 percent increase in household incomes