Tacurong exec shares poverty reduction action plan in a national forum

TACURONG
CITY -- The chief executive of this city has shared Tacurong
City’s successful community based monitoring system that led to the successful
anti-poverty action plan and bottoms up budgeting program. We
count to make our people feel that they really count,” Tacurong City Mayor Lina
Montilla said in a statement here.
It
was the summary of her speech presented during the 12th Community-Based
Monitoring System (CBMS) National Conference at the Crown Plaza Manila Galleria
in Quezon City Thursday.
Montilla
shared the city’s experience CBMS implementation especially on how it served as
an essential guide in two aspects of local governanceand policymaking and program
implementation. The
mayor’s presentation also highlighted the use of CBMS in the formulation of the
Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan (LPRAP) as well as the allocation of the
Bottom Up Budgeting (BUB) funds.
Tacurong’s
successful implementation of CBMS paved way for it to be invited as resource
person in the conference attended by more than 600 participants including local
chief executives (LCEs), partners and other stakeholders in the national and
local government units across the country.
Notably,
Tacurong was the first LGU in Region 12 to implement the CBMS Accelerated
Poverty Profiling using android tablets in collecting survey data. Aside
from the help of technology, the city’s success in CBMS implementation is
largely credited to the integrity of the survey process. Competent
enumerators and supervisors, under the close supervision of the City DILG and
City Planning Office, closely coordinated with barangay leaders and health
workers to reach even the farthest households and ensure the participation of
the residents in the survey.
CBMS
is a survey tool that collects information at the household level in the
barangays for use of Local Government Units (LGUs) and other agencies for
planning, program implementation, and monitoring. A
major objective of CBMS is to assist in poverty reduction.
Held
annually, the CBMS conference aims to provide a venue for participants to
discuss current developments, findings and best practices on the implementation
of CBMS.
This
year’s conference was organized by De La Salle University – Angelo King
Institute, Partnership for Economic Policy and CBMS Network International, in
partnership with the Department of the Interior and Local Government, National
Economic Development Authority, and Union of Local Authorities of the
Philippines.
Carrying
the theme Pursuing Meaningful Devolution through CBMS”, the conference
fittingly coincided with the 25th year of the implementation of the Local
Government Code, which devolved to LGUs the responsibility of delivering the
services to the public that were previously under the domain of the national
government.
DILG
Undersecretary Austere Panadero, who represented Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento
as one of the keynote speakers in the conference, lauded the LGUs who invested
in the CBMS project in their areas. He
said that as more responsibilities are given to the LGUs, the local officials
need evidence-based policymaking and program implementation, which the CBMS had
appropriately provided.
He
specifically acknowledged Mayor Montilla as one of the LCEs who effectively
implemented the CBMS project, which in turn benefited her city in responding to
the felt needs of the constituents.