MONITORING. Members of the Regional Development Council (RDC) check the progress of Tacloban Airport terminal building construction in this Feb. 20, 2024 photo. At least 25 key projects in Eastern Visayas have been identified for monitoring by the RDC. (Photo courtesy of RDC Eastern Visayas)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Regional Development Council (RDC) is closely monitoring at least 25 key projects in Eastern Visayas to ensure expeditious implementation.
Meylene Rosales, RDC vice chairperson and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) regional director, said these projects are significant in attaining economic development in the region.
She said the Regional Project Monitoring Committee (RPMC), composed of officials from the government and private sector, is tasked to prepare reports on field monitoring and provide feedback to implementing agencies and stakeholders about the development of the identified projects.
“In consideration of the limited technical and logistical resources for monitoring activities, there is a need for the RPMC to prioritize programs and projects to be subjected to field monitoring,” Rosales said in an interview Wednesday.
The RPMC is the RDC’s project monitoring arm, responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of priority programs and projects implemented in the region, particularly those that are encountering implementation bottlenecks and projects that are worthy of replication.
These projects are the Samar Pacific Coastal Road Phase 2, Rural Agro-Enterprise Partnership for Inclusive Development and Growth (RAPID), Philippine Fisheries Coastal Resiliency (FishCoRe), Support to Parcelization of Lands for Individual Titling (SPLIT), Support to Barangay Development Program, post-Yolanda housing, Leyte tide embankment, evacuation centers and multi-purpose buildings, and rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged by recent disasters.
Also listed are the Tacloban Airport Development Project, Tacloban City Causeway Project, bypass roads construction, rehabilitation of Maharlika Highway in Samar, Tourism Road Infrastructure Program, farm-to-market roads, irrigation projects, flood control projects, health facility enhancement, Special Area for Agricultural Development Phase 2, Expanded National Greening Program, and problematic projects inside the Northwest Samar State University campus in Calbayog City, Samar.
For the first time, the body also included the improvement and maintenance of water supply by water districts in Tacloban City, Hilongos, Leyte, and Calbayog City.
The projects with over billion-peso allocations are SPLIT with PHP24.62 billion, FishCoRe with PHP11.42 billion, Samar Pacific Coastal Road Phase 2 with PHP7.48 billion, irrigation projects with PHP5.16 billion, RAPID with PHP4.78 billion, post-Yolanda housing projects with PHP3.99 billion, Tacloban airport development with PHP2.18 billion, and expansion of water supply in Tacloban and nearby towns with PHP1.33 billion.
Rosales said these projects have been prioritized since they were endorsed by the NEDA-Investment Coordination Committee, related to security and peace and order, critical to disaster resiliency, ongoing activities included in the Regional Development Investment Program, and problematic projects.
Considered problematic are long-delayed projects, according to NEDA. (PNA)
