Thursday, September 13, 2007 Mindanao rural dev't program gets $124-million By Joy Romares-Sevilla
A TOTAL of $124 million has been earmarked to fund the Mindanao Rural Development Program (MRDP) that will be implemented all over the island.
"Out of this figure, US$84 million is the amount we loaned from the World Bank, US$8 million is the share of the national government, while the rest is the counterpart of all local government units where the program is being implemented," Arnel de Mesa, MRDP deputy director, said Wednesday.
De Mesa said MRDP now is on its second phase. It started this year and will end on 2012.
"The first phase of the project was from 2000 to 2004. World Bank evaluated the project and it turned satisfactory that is why we extended its implementation. Hopefully, the second phase will also be successful so we can start the preparation of MRDP 3," de Mesa said.
He said if MRDP 2 will be successful, the program is expected to get an additional loan from the World Bank.
He said that MRDP 1 covered only five provinces in Mindanao. The program's second phase, on the other hand, covers 27 provinces in Mindanao, including 225 municipalities.
"We are targeting that all municipalities in Mindanao will be covered in MRDP 3," de Mesa said.
The project, de Mesa, said has several components including support to rural infrastructures, livelihood projects, and others.
"This project is community-driven. The communities will propose a project that will be approved by the multi-sectoral committee in each community," he said.
In the second phase of MRDP, the conflict-affected areas in Mindanao are also covered.
