DavOr firms up projects for ‘cleared barangays’

THE PROVINCIAL government of Davao Oriental is optimistic that starting next year, the province will be able to implement big-ticket projects under the President’s Whole of Nation Approach to Attain Sustainable Peace and to End Local Communist Armed Conflict for its priority barangays.

During the Workshop of the Regional Task Force ELCAC on Monday, February 17, held in Davao City, the province of Davao Oriental along with other provinces in the Davao region, has come up with the list of priority Quick Impact Projects – mostly infrastructure and livelihood projects, which bid to foster peace and end the long-running Communist insurgency.

Quick Impact Projects are those projects proposed by the local government units and national government agencies for implementation in 2020 in the cleared barangays.

Governor Nelson Dayanghirang together with his team composed of the municipal and city mayors with their respective planning officers and the province’s chiefs of the military, police, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government sat down during the workshop in order to firm up the list of projects for implementation to be presented at the Regional Development Council this week.

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary and concurrent Cabinet Secretary for Regional Development and Security (CORDS) Sec. Wendel Avisado, during the workshop, assured that there will be funding for these priority projects in the barangays declared as “cleared” by the security sector.

For the entire Davao region, 55 villages have been identified as priority barangays, ten of which are from Davao Oriental.

Aside from the Quick Impact Projects, the provinces have also identified High-impact Priority Projects. These projects are set to be incorporated into the 2021 budget proposals of the regional line agencies which will later be endorsed to the Regional Development Council. These projects will then be submitted to the agencies’ central offices before it reaches the DBM.

Secretary Avisado urged the agencies to submit projects tagged as convergence projects under RTF-ELCAC since it is the priority of the national government to cater communities vulnerable to armed conflict. “On our part, we will endeavor to prioritize all RDC-endorsed RTF-ELCAC priority projects during the technical budget hearing of all department agency proposals for final inclusion to the National Expenditure Program.”

“We would like to see something happening in our midst – the change the people are waiting for in the longest time,” he said. “Let the people see the changes happening in

their respective communities,” he stressed.

He further urged the local government units to involve the communities in the implementation of the project to provide jobs and giving them a sense of ownership on these projects.

Monday’s activity is an offshoot of the series of other workshops under the RTF which started last January.