DILG looks to ‘divine intervention’ in vetting local projects

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–Even religious groups may now keep tabs on local government units (LGUs) and their projects.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is tapping faith-based organizations to help monitor LGUs’ implementation of local projects to ensure transparency and accountability at the grassroots level.

The groups will be joining the civil society sector in keeping an eye on LGUs under the Grassroots Participatory Budgeting Process (GPBP).

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said the DILG will formalize its partnership with religious and faith-based groups in monitoring GPBP-funded projects.

“In the coming weeks, we will sign a memorandum of agreement for the religious groups to closely watch the GPBP projects,” Roxas said in a statement.

He also urged stakeholders in the effort to be vigilant and ensure that projects are implemented accordingly.

Roxas said the LGUs will also implement essential projects identified by civil society groups, such as bringing potable water to remote barangays (villages).

The government has earmarked P20.3 billion for the antipoverty projects under the GPBP all over the country for 2015.

Roxas said next year’s GPBP allocation remained unchanged from this year’s but more LGUs will be sharing in the 2015 budget.

From 1,226 LGUs in fourth-, fifth- and sixth-class municipalities, more than 1,600 local governments will make do with the same amount next year.

“The GPBP is President Aquino’s social contract with the public as the boss. The projects are for real, no corruption, no kickbacks. This is your project, so keep an eye on it,” Roxas told civil society members in Malaybalay City on Aug. 31.

The P20-billion budget was sourced from, among others, the departments of Agriculture (P9.286 billion), Social Welfare and Development (P2.638 billion), Education (P1.449 billion), Health (P1.355 billion), Agrarian Reform (P574 million), Trade and Industry (P549 million), Labor and Employment (P507 million), Environment and Natural Resources (P417 million), Energy (P97 million), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (P423 million), National Electrification Administration (P78 million) and the DILG itself (P2.476 billion).