CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga-The national government has allotted for 2015 around P1.5 billion for funding of 1,144 projects in Central Luzon under the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting (GPB) formerly known as Bottom-Up Budgeting.
Department of Agriculture has the most number of projects with 285 followed Department of Social Welfare and Development with 257, Department of Education-170, Department of Health-148, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)- 118, Department of Trade and Industry-76, Department of Labor and Employment-44, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority-24, Department of Tourism and Department of Environment and Natural Resources with 10 each, and Department of Energy and National Electrification Administration with one each.
“GPB is a process through which priority poverty reduction projects are identified jointly by citizens and their local governments and are incorporated into the proposed budgets of the implementing national government agencies submitted to Congress for approval,” DILG Regional Director Florida Dijan said.
It specifically seeks to make the national budget more responsive to local needs, provide incentives for local good governance, strengthen the devolution of basic services delivery, create a conducive environment for people’s participation, and generate demand for good governance at the local level.
GPB cycle begins with the conduct of city/municipal civil society general assembly whose main agenda is have an orientation on the undertaking, conduct poverty situation analysis, and election of members and co-chairpersons of the Local Poverty Reduction Action Team (LPRAT).
Civil Society Representatives (CSO) shall constitute 50 percent of the membership of the LPRAT while the remainder shall come from both the national and local government.
It is followed by the holding of local poverty reduction planning workshops; submission of list of priority projects and other supporting documents to DILG; consolidation of list of projects by DILG Regional Office and submission to the National Anti-Poverty Commission and distribution to Regional PRAT members; adoption of final list of priority projects by local Sanggunian; integration into the national budget; and provision of funding for local government unit (LGU) counterpart in local budget.
“Projects must be supportive to the provision of basic social services and attainment of the Millennium Development Goals; hunger mitigation and elimination; job generation and inclusive local economic development; climate change adaptation and disaster preparedness; and shall not be less than P500,000 except for Gulayan sa Paaralan,” Dijan explained.
Over P20 billion was allocated for GPB projects this 2014 covering 1,226 towns and cities of which 52 are in Central Luzon.
For next year, it shall cover all LGUs including Region 3’ s 116 towns and 14 cities. (Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu)
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