by Anjanette V. Nemiaga
ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Mar 30 (PIA) – Zamboanga del Norte mayors recently underwent an orientation on the Agrarian Reform Communities Project 2 (ARCP2) of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR)-ZaNorte in a local hotel of Dipolog City.
Director Homer P. Tobias, ARCP2 National Project Coordinator from the National Project Coordinating Office discussed with the different city and municipal Mayors, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators (MPDCs) and the Municipal Engineers (MEs), under ARCP2, the direction of the project for 2012 and the enhanced service standards for the sub-project implementation. He stressed that the project’s service standard is: “Mas pinadali, mas pinabilis at mas pinagaan.”
Director Tobias also emphasized during the briefing the guidelines on Performance Based Grant System (PBGS) and the National Government Assistance to Local Government Units (NGALGU). He also presented the summary of approved sub-projects and those for approval wherein the total project cost for approval for the month of March amounts to Ph300-400 million nationwide.
As of press time, Zamboanga del Norte has already six (6) approved sub-projects (SPs) amounting to Ph7.9 million, has 29 SPs pipeline for approval amounting to Ph76.9 million, and has 51 SPs, which is currently on its on-going preparation of documents with detailed engineering stage with a total project cost of Ph155.6 million.
The DAR-ARCP2 Zamboanga del Norte covers 19 Agrarian Reform Communities (ARCs) with13 municipalities and 2 cities. The project has four program components to include: the Community-Driven Development (CDD) - building the capacities of farmers, ARC organizations and LGUs; the Agriculture and Enterprise Development (AED) – enhancing productivity, creating opportunities and wealth; the Rural Infrastructure (RI) - linking farms to markets, improving access to services; and the Project Implementation Management (PIM) – ensuring efficiency and sound development management.
The project’s goal is for farmers to access productivity and enhancing interventions and for them to engage in agribusiness and sustainable livelihood (viable and sustainable people’s business organization), thus, contributing to the government’s effort in reducing poverty.
This project is in consonance with DAR’s thrust to continually deliver intensive support services to agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) and other farmers in the different ARCs. This is through the implementation of foreign-assisted projects (FAPs) where it provides a package of intervention to ensure productivity of awarded lands resulting in increased household incomes and improved socio-economic standing of the ARBs.
Also present during the said affair were Floripes V. Lagutin, Regional Lead Coordinator, PARO I Moh. Dassan J. Adju, Asst. Provincial Project Manager, Raul J. Sy, Over-all Technical Coordinator, and the ARCP2 provincial project office staff. (DARZN/RVC-PIA-9 ZBST)