DA to implement $700-M project

MARAWI CITY – The Department of Agriculture (DA) will start implementing the country-wide $700 million Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) in the second quarter of this year.

Agriculture Secretary Prospero J. Alcala told Sun. Star Cagayan de Oro Friday that the PRDP is a result of the lessons learned from the Mindanao Rural Development Project (MRDP), which comprise the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao clusters.

“The PRDP is a five-year development program which include infrastructure, farm to market road, irrigation, training, livelihood assistance to fisherfolks, farmers, women, and other community beneficiaries,” Alcala said.

Alcala said, “In the Visayas cluster the beneficiaries have already started the training activities where most of the PRDP recipients are the survivors of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Bohol in October and supertyphoon Yolanda that battered Tacloban City and other affected areas in eastern Visayas in November last year.”

Alcala said, the loan assistance from World Bank to the Government of the Philippines is 70 percent of the total loan package with counterpart from the local government units (LGUs).

In Alcala’s first visit to the province of Lanao del Sur, DA central office, through its regional branch in northern Mindanao, handed over the P40.7-million worth assistance from Agri-Pinoy program.

Alcala is confident that with the successful forging of peace agreement between the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the GPH, the PRDP will contribute in the attainment of peace by providing the livelihood assistance to the Bangsamoro communities.

One of the concrete legacies for the sustainable peace initiative is the MILF rebel returnees in Kauswagan town in Lanao del Norte, Alcala added.

The returnees are now engaged in livelihood projects in the hinterlands of Kauswagan and Munai towns, where the former rebels received and implemented the livelihood assistance through the help of Kauswagan town Mayor Rommel C. Arnado.