OZAMIZ CITY -- The province of Misamis Occidental has recently entered into an agreement with the Australian government for a P500 million infrastructure support primarily aimed at rehabilitating provincial roads over the next five years.

The development assistance pact was signed by Governor Loreto Leo Ocampos and Australian ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith last week in the presence of Assistant Secretary Austere Panadero of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

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According to governor Loreto Leo Ocampos, the Southern Philippines Provincial Road Maintenance Program (SPPRMP) actually covers 10 provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao and is funded with some Aus$100 million—around P3.5 billion—by the Australian government through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

The program has a Provincial Road Maintenance Facility (PRMF) that provides P50 million each year to every beneficiary provinces for construction and repair of provincial roads over a five-year period.

Ocampos, who is also president of the League of Provinces, emphasized that provincial roads are the key links of rural communities to the national highway and eventually to the centers of trade and commerce, political administration, and health and educational services, among others.

By improving transport along these, especially in terms of travel time and cost, the welfare of rural folks will significantly improve, he said.

Apart from improving the road network, the program also seeks to strengthen each province’s institutional capacity and governance system related to the provision and maintenance of provincial roads.

The intervention is set against the fact that of the country’s more than 31,000 kilometers of provincial roads, only a small percentage of these are assessed to be “in good condition.”

Depending on the performance of each beneficiary province in carrying out the program, these could be eligible for another round of assistance, Ocampos added.

The provinces slated to benefit from the SPPRMP are Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental and Surigao del Norte, in Mindanao; and Bohol and Guimaras in the Visayas.

Three more beneficiary provinces are still to be identified.

Within five years, the SPPRMP is principally expected to have rehabilitated at least 1,000 kilometers of provincial roads in the 10 provinces; improved access for over four million people to schools and health centers; and reduced transport costs.

The PRMF is said to be Australia’s single largest grant project in the Philippines to date; the bilateral agreement covering this was signed last March.

Australia is the country’s second largest bilateral grant aid donor after Japan. Its aid program has grown significantly in the last three years; for the fiscal year 2008-2009, its assistance portfolio is estimated at Aus$109 million.

The SPPRMP is Misamis Occidental’s third major multi-million peso development assistance package with AusAID.