Lack of counterpart fund stalls anti-poverty projects

from The Inquirer

By Ven S. Labro
Visayas Bureau

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines -- The lack of counterpart fund has prevented some of the poorest Eastern Visayas towns from availing of grants for anti-poverty projects.

The Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (Kalahi-CIDSS) is a World Bank-assisted project that aims to empower communities, improve local governance and reduce poverty.

However, the project requires a local counterpart contribution (LCC) of about 30 percent of the estimated project cost, with the provincial, municipal and village governments contributing 10 percent each.

Neil Moraleta, Kalahi-CIDSS social marketing officer in the region, said that some of the poorer towns identified as prioritized program beneficiaries waived their inclusion in the anti-poverty project since they could not comply with the LCC requirement.
Moraleta cited the case of La Paz town, a 5th class municipality in Leyte, which was not in the original list of prioritized beneficiaries. La Paz town availed of the project after a couple of poorer towns backed out from the program, Moraleta said on Tuesday.

He also mentioned the case of a town in Samar whose mayor withdrew from the program in 2007 because of lack of counterpart fund.

But the project went ahead after the congresswoman in their district shouldered the full LCC amount using her countrywide development fund, Moraleta added.

He also noted that the late release of counterpart funds delayed the implementation of some projects.

He cited the case of Leyte town where nine projects were not able to complete implementation in 2007 as scheduled.

"We hope to eventually complete these projects, which are already 80 to 90 percent accomplished, by March this year," he said.

However, he maintained that there were a few cases of delayed project implementation due to lack of LCC fund.

Letecia Corillo, Department of Social Welfare and Development regional director, recently said that Kalahi-CIDSS would release P300 million in development funds in 2008 to 600 villages in 25 municipalities across the region to fund "poverty-responsive community projects identified by these communities."

Corillo said the project recipients in 2008 included the towns of Julita, Javier, Kananga, La Paz, Leyte, Mayorga, Mahaplag, Bato, Capoocan, Tabango, Tabontabon and San Isidro in Leyte province; Paranas, Sta. Margarita, Sta. Rita, Tarangnan and Villareal in Samar; Cabucgayan and Naval in Biliran; and Silvino Lobos, Laoang, Las Navas, Mondragon, Pambujan and San Roque in Northern Samar.

The Kalahi-CIDSS, which was started in Eastern Visayas in 2003, has disbursed over P330 million to 511 villages in 33 municipalities.

The amount represents 44 percent of the more than P720-million grant allocated for the implementation of Kalahi-CIDSS projects in more than 800 villages in the six provinces in the region.

In 2007 alone, Moraleta said some P288 million was released to 156 villages in the region to bankroll projects identified by the communities themselves such as the construction of water system facilities, school buildings, health stations, drainage systems, farm-to-market road, and footbridges, among many others.