Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II has distributed checks amounting to nearly P39 million to mayors of 21 municipalities in Northern Mindanao as part of the Aquino administration’s efforts to empower local government units in financing anti-poverty programs.
Roxas said the allocation was just a portion of the total amount earmarked for municipalities in the region under the Grassroots Participatory Budget Process (GPBP), the new “bottom-up” budgeting system introduced by the Aquino administration last year.
The towns received the checks after they completed the requirements for availing themselves of funds intended for poverty-alleviation projects, he said.
“Previously, the national budget was being prepared from the top, with government leaders deciding what projects to fund at the local level,” Roxas said in a statement.
“The GPBP… reverses the process by allowing would-be project beneficiaries to identify the projects that the government will include in the preparation of the annual budget,” he said.
This year, he said, the national government has made available a total of P20.03 billion to finance 19,553 anti-poverty projects, which the LGUs identified with the help of nongovernmental organizations.
Under the GPBP, Roxas said, cities may avail themselves of up to P50 million in financial assistance to fund local anti-poverty programs while municipalities may receive as much as P15 million.
The interior secretary said the budget system also allowed NGOs to take an active role in determining which programs should be financed by the LGUs.
“With the GPBP, LGUs closely coordinate with community-based organizations in preparing the budget for programs needed by their respective communities,” he said.
“Both the LGUs and the people are empowered to come up with projects to reduce poverty. This is one way to ensure that everybody will be with us in treading the ‘straight path’,” Roxas said, referring to President Aquino’s anti-corruption slogan.
The mayors personally received the checks amounting to P38,830,864.74 from Roxas after the launching of the Mindanao Barangay (village) StraTREEgic Forest Project in Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday.
He said a total of P205.44 million has been allotted for Oroquieta and Cagayan de Oro cities and 54 municipalities in Northern Mindanao under the GPBP.
Last month, Roxas led the distribution of P4 billion in financial assistance to areas ravaged by Supertyphoon Yolanda in the Visayas region also under the GPBP.
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