Non-release of funds by NG blamed for slow progress of dev’t projects

Kalibo, Aklan – Slow release of counterpart funds by the National Government is hampering the progress of development projects.

This was the common grievance of local government units (LGUs) and project recipients under the agrarian reform program. The lament was shared by Agrarian Reform Secretary Roberto M. Pagdanganan and the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).

Officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in Aklan said the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) which is supported by multilateral agencies like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will be very successful if the National Government will only religiously release funds.

"We are successful (with the CARP program) with meager funds. We can do more with more funds already allocated for it," officials of both government and non-government organizations (NGOs) said.

"CARP is an ambitious project but we do not have the funds to complete it despite the enthusiasm of the rural and agricultural poor," they said.

Despite the slow release of funds by the NG, foreign-assisted projects were extremely successful in their objective of alleviating poverty in the rural areas.

Agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) were able to increase their incomes several fold under the Agrarian Reform Communities Projects (ARCPs) of DAR. The total project cost was placed at P7.2 billion of which total ADB funding commitments reached almost P4 billion. The rest of the funding would come from the National Government and LGUs.

The ARCP is a six-year poverty alleviation project with funding assistance from the ADB. The project, which started in mid-1999, covers about 140 agrarian reform communities in 35 provinces.

The ARCP in the province of Aklan has been tagged as the most successful agrarian reform program by an ADB mission headed by Dr. Sununtar Setboonsarng. The mission spent three-weeks visiting 26 municipalities participating in the ARCP.

The infrastructure component of the ARCP consists of farm to market roads and bridges, irrigation facilities and potable water supply systems. This accounted for almost 57 percent of the total project implementation.

Development support projects involve technology promotion programs for high-value and off-season crops, livestock and inland fisheries.