ITOGON, Benguet – Mayor Victorio T. Palangdan underscored that the annual investment plans of barangays, municipalities, cities and provinces must be respected by concerned government agencies in the provision of funds for high impact development projects to be funded by their respective allocations from the annual budget of the national government.
He claimed that over the past several years, it seems that concerned government agencies have set aside the priorities of the barangays, municipalities and the province in the provision of funds for the development projects as most of those that had been implemented in the different areas have not been prioritized by the host local governments which defeats the purpose of requiring the preparation of their respective annual investment plans.
Under Republic Act (RA) 7160 or the Local Government Code of the Philippines, barangays, municipalities, cities and provinces are mandated to prepare their respective annual investment plans as the basis in the identification of priority high impact development projects to be funded by the respective local governments while the others will be submitted to concerned government agencies for them to select those that will be prioritized for funding based on the available budget allocation from the budget department.
Mayor Palangdan pointed out that concerned government agencies should not disregard the annual investment plans when they identify priority projects they will fund because these passed through a rigid process of consultations with stakeholders where the needs of the people on the ground had been already prioritized for the government to fund for the growth and development of the countryside and not only in urban areas to prevent people from outmigrating to urban communities worsening congestion thereat.
According to him, it is disheartening to know that the high impact development projects of local governments are still awaiting funding not only from designated funds but also from concerned government agencies that have programs, projects and activities on the growth and development of rural areas to balance urban-rural growth.
Palangdan expressed hope that this current practice will be corrected by the next officials so that incoming local officials will be empowered to enhance their annual investment plans that will focus on the overall growth and development and spur robust economic activities of their respective areas.
The mayor asserted that local governments should be consulted by government agencies in the identification of development projects in their areas that must be supported to even out the overall growth and development between urban and rural communities so that there will be no places left behind.
