Bicol Region

Albay tops KALAHI-CIDSS Regional Awards

By Marlon A. Loterte

Friday 27th of July 2012

LEGAZPI CITY, July 27 (PIA) -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development named Albay the best province in Bicol in implementing the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS).

Remia Tapispisan, DSWD regional director, said Albay and the provinces of Sorsogon, Catanduanes and Camarines Sur were the recipients of this year’s KALAHI-CIDSS regional awards as best implementers.

At the awarding rites at Casablanca Hotel here Friday, Tapispisan lauded Albay Gov. Joey Salceda for giving financial support and effectively carrying out the program in the province.

According to a study of DSWD-ADB (Asian Development Bank), since 2008 the Provincial Government of Albay has accounted for much of P186 million in local counterpart funding to DSWD projects that amounted to P456 million infusion into Albay.

Tapispisan also congratulated the provincial government of Albay and its component local government units (LGUs) for being recipients of 22 awards.

She likewise challenged the others to match the performance of Albay.

Malinao town was the most awarded local government unit with five awards, which include Best Barangay Sub-Project Management Committee, Best Community Drive Development-Local Planning Process Harmonization, Best in Reporting and Database Management System, Best in Disaster Risk Reduction Mainstreaming and Best in LGU Finance Counterpart and Best Encoder.

Other town awardees were Libon for best in Social Mobilization, best in SPI, best in Monitoring; Rapu-rapu for best in Local Counterpart Contribution Delivery and best Municipal Financial Analyst; and Pioduran for best in sub-Project Sustainability Monitoring.

KALAHI-CIDSS is the Philippine government’s flagship poverty-alleviation project implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development through the financial support of the World Bank.

The program empowers the poor, supports poor LGUs in local development and invests heavily on people, not just projects.

Funds are released directly to the villager’s KALAHI-CIDSS bank accounts. Villagers also manage, monitor and supervise the implementation of sub-projects.

These sub-projects were implemented faster and cheaper compared to traditional implementation of projects in the Philippines. (MAL/MSA-PIA5, Albay)