21 Mindanao mayors get P38 M for anti-poverty projects

Twenty-one mayors in orthern Mindanao have received P38 million in funds for poverty-alleviation projects, according to Interior and Local Government ecretary Mar Roxas.

Roxas said the mayors have completed all the requirements needed for them to avail themselves of anti-poverty projects from the national government.

He said the P38 million represents 50 percent of the total fund allotted by the national government to the 23 mayors under the Grassroots Participatory Budget Process (GPBP), a new initiative being facilitated by his department under which local government units ( LGUs) identify and monitor the implementation of projects in partnership with non-government organi ations ( G s) and people’s organi ations (P s).

Roxas turned over the checks worth P38,830,864.74 to the 21 orthern Mindanao mayors shortly after he attended the launch in Cagayan de ro City of the Mindanao Barangay traTR gic Forest Project last week.

He said the GPBP, a joint project of the DILG, Mindanao Development Authority and Department of nvironment and atural Resources, seeks to harmoni e efforts in Mindanao to contribute to the ational Greening Program’s goal of planting 1.5 billion seedlings on 1.5 million hectares of public lands by 2016.

Roxas said the GPBP institutionali es the Aquino administration’s “bottom-up” approach in the budget preparation process that was introduced in 2013.

For this year, a total of P205.44 million has been allocated for the cities of roquieta and Cagayan de ro and 54 municipalities in orthern Mindanao under GPBP.

The national budget used to be prepared from the top, with government leaders deciding what projects to fund at the local level. The GPBP, Roxas said, reverses the process by allowing would-be beneficiaries to identify the projects that the government will in turn include in the preparation of the annual budget.

Roxas said the GPBP empowers not only the LGUs but also the G s and P s in deciding what to do with the annual budget allocated for LGUs under the program.

Under the GPBP, municipalities are qualified to receive a maximum of P15 million while cities are entitled to P50 million annually to fund local projects that include municipal water systems, livelihood projects, farm-to-market roads, irrigation systems, pre-planting and post-harvest facilities, agriculture production, processing and marketing, livestock raising, and plant propagation.

For this year, the national government has allocated P20.03 billion under the GPBP to fund 19,553 poverty- alleviation projects that were identifi ed by 1,226 LGUs all over the country in coordination with civil society groups in their respective communities.