The Eastern Visayas Regional Development Council endorsed PhP71.6 billion worth of priority programs and projects (PPs) of 34 agency regional offices (AROs) and ten (10) state universities and colleges (SUCs) in the region. This was during its 1st Quarter Full Council Meeting on 29 March 2019 at NEDA VIII, Palo, Leyte.

The endorsement was recommended by the four (4) Sectoral Committees of the Council following a tedious scrutiny of the proposed budgets by the SecComs, preceded by a tripartite review and consultation between and among the agency/SUC concerned, the Department of Budget and Management VIII, and NEDA VIII as the RDC secretariat. The bulk of the projects (46% or 617 projects) was endorsed by the Social Development Committee in support to human development. Taking advantage of the Build, Build, Build priority of the current administration, the Infrastructure and Utilities Development Committee endorsed 525 PPs (39%). The Economic Development Committee endorsed 104 PPs and the Development Administration Committee 87 PPs.

Priority projects endorsed are supportive of the strategies and targets in the Eastern Visayas Regional Development Plan, Regional Development Investment Program, and Results Matrices 2017-2022. They were also found to be implementation-ready.

Endorsed priority projects of the AROs will be submitted to their central offices for inclusion in their respective budget proposals for FY 2020. Those of SUCs will be submitted to CHED Central Office.

The Council also approved and adopted the guidelines in the updating of the Eastern Visayas Regional Development Plan 2017-2022. Updating will be done to ensure that accomplishments, challenges, and lessons learned from the past three years will be incorporated. Plan updating activities start in April and end in September this year.

Article by Fretzie Basal;   Photo by Linnito Pascual