Burgos, Ilocos Sur – With the ongoing Community Empowerment Activity Cycle (CEAC) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD’s) Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS), technical facilitators, supervised by Regional Community Infrastructure Specialist Engr. Nafianog, started the validation of sub-projects proposed in the communities to assure viability of proposed sub-projects before the prioritization and implementation processes of the Program in their area.
“Our main objective in conducting site validation of proposed sub-projects in Kalahi-CIDSS areas is to verify if the proposed projects are technically feasible in terms of engineering, socially acceptable, and if they conform to social and environmental safeguards which protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and their ancestral domains, and the preservation of the environment,” Engr. Nafianog said.
As a result to the identification of poverty challenges in the five barangays of Burgos, Ilocos Sur such as unsafe and unsecured roads, inadequate access roads, absence of bridges in flash-flood prone areas, non-existence of Day Care Centers, and rough access roads, the following sub-projects were identified in response to the problems seen: a 100-meter slope protection, 225-meter farm-to-market road, 409-meter hanging bridge, road rehabilitation, and a Day Care Center, to name a few.
When asked about the challenges he had identified in the implementation of sub-projects based on his observations during the site validation, Engr. Nafianog said, “There are not much restrictions in the implementation of sub-project/s that may be prioritized in Burgos, Ilocos Sur. So far, the concern is more on the worth of the sub-project/s matching the amount of the allocation grant that the Municipality of Burgos, Ilocos Sur will get per cycle.” The Municipality of Burgos, Ilocos Sur will receive a grant allocation amounting to P4,671,600.00 per cycle and a total of P18,686,400.00 in four cycles.
Provided with a site validation report from the technical unit of the Program, Kalahi-CIDSS proposed sub-projects in the barangay level now have a stronger bearing in the prioritization of projects in the municipal level as to their technical and legitimate status, the site where they will be constructed, and their beneficiaries from the area and possible beneficiaries from nearby barangays. (by: Jomara S. Chan, Kalahi-CIDSS SMO)
