Camarines Sur’s Partido Development Administration (PDA), a government-owned and -controlled corporation (GOCC) hailed as a model for district development planning, is being replicated in other congressional districts because of its success story, according to Camarines Sur Representative Arnulfo Fuentebella.
Fuentebella said that CamSur’s PDA located in his third district had been recognized by the Congressional Planning and Budget Department as the best district in planning, and was presented to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile in 2009 as a model on how to strengthen the said department.
It also received a Civil Service Commission Certificate of Recognition as a finalist in the 2010 Search for Outstanding National Government Agency and Accreditation under the CSC Agency Accreditation Program.
One of its kind “PDA has been so effective in performing its mandate that numerous attempts have been made by other congressional districts to duplicate it. So far, it is the only one of its kind in the country,” Fuentebella said in a recent interview.
Created in 1994 through Republic Act No. 7820 during the term of President Fidel Ramos, the PDA was a brainchild of Fuentebella as an intervention to district development to enable the province’s third district to catch up with the more advanced districts in the country.
Partido was previously Partido de Lagonoy, composed of the early settlements in Lagonoy, San Jose, Goa and other parts of what is now known as “Partido” covering the northeastern portion
of mainland Camarines Sur, including the islands of Burias (Masbate) and Catanduanes.
Best practices
This name was later shortened to “Partido,” from the Spanish word “partir” which means to separate.
Fuentebella said the PDA’s experience showed the best practices in district planning can lead to tangible results and its exercise can serve as a systematic way of identifying the right projects for the districts.
He said the PDA is unique in the sense that it does not depend on the national government to fund its operation and that it is empowered under its charter to execute its plans to accelerate the development in his third district.
Among its accomplishments included the institutionalization of district planning, establishment of district database, creation of a multisectoral planning and development body for the districts, increased coordination with executive department/agencies and various sectors of civil society, and providing constituents with a venue for consultation and feedback.
Water project PDA’s design for the water project to provide potable water through a loan guaranteed by the national government which features a very low interest rate reportedly impressed President Aquino when he visited the area in 2007 when he was running for senator.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad have expressed
support for PDA’s financial position even after they tightened up on other GOCCs.
Cagayan de Oro Representative Rufus Rodriguez said he had removed the PDA from the list of GOCCs whose abolition he had sought in a bill he filed a year ago.
In an interview, Rodriguez said that he was fully supportive of PDA and the developmental work it is doing for the people of Camarines Sur.
“I filed that (bill) a year ago and many of the agencies have given position papers. We see that some of those I have listed are really operating, working well—providing development to many areas,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the PDA was one of the 15 GOCCs that he had already removed from the list of nonperforming GOCCs.
Rodriguez lauded in particular the PDA’s water system project which serves all of the municipalities in what is better known as the Partido District.