BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera Regional Project Monitoring Committee reviewed it 2020 accomplishments and 2021 work plan during its 1st quarter meeting on February 9, 2021. The RPMC adjusted how it conducted field visits in 2020 to comply with health guidelines and border restrictions. A total of 12 priority project sites were visited in 2020. Along with this, the RPMC prepared 4 quarterly monitoring reports, conducted 4 regular committee meetings, and conducted a webinar on School Building Guidelines under the DepEd Basic Educational Facilities Fund (BEFF).
The RPMC visits sites of problematic projects flagged under the Regional Project Monitoring and Evaluation System (RPMES) to conduct on-site inspection and problem-solving sessions with the intention of getting projects back on track and meet project timelines. In 2019, the RPMC also started visiting projects with good performance to learn their best practices that may applied in other projects.
Before the pandemic, the RPMC visited sites in Ifugao from March 1 to 3 to inspect both problematic and good-performing projects. Among the sites visited were the Ifugao General Hospital, the Alfonso Lista Pump Irrigation Project (ALPIP), the Duit Elementary School Building Project, and the Ifugao State University Water System Project.
With the onset of the pandemic, the committee focused on the implementation of the Social Amelioration and Emergency Subsidy Program (SA/ESP). The RPMC visited Baguio City barangays during their pay-out activities, the Baguio City Relief Operations Center at the PFVR Gym, and the Baguio SAP Operations Center in DepEd-Baguio Division Office, all in the month of April.
The RPMC ended the year with a site inspection of the various sections of the BLISTT Outer Ring Circumferential Road on December 4, 2020. The implementation of road construction and slope protection projects were noted to be ahead of schedule. DPWH cited the fast-tracked implementation to strict adherence to schedule and compliance of the contractors. The sections were Section 2, Kamog Jct.-Calot-Pappa-Bagong-Balluay-Tuel Jct. from Sablan to Tublay (B1-B2); Section 4A, Labey-Lacamen Provincial Road in Tublay (C1-C2); and Section 4B, Bokod-Labey-Lacamen Provincial Road from Bokod to Tublay (C2-C3).
Also additionally, as part of its monitoring and evaluation capacity building program, the RPMC conducted a webinar on School Building Guidelines on August 18, 2020 to orient provincial project monitoring committees on prescribed building guidelines under DepEd’s Basic Education Facilities Funds (BEFF) as implemented by the DPWH.
The RPMC intends to continue these inspections and webinars throughout 2021. Through NEDA-CAR and NIA-CAR, the RPMC recently concluded its February 10 webinar on NIA irrigation projects, their classification, prioritization, monitoring and challenges. Priorities for inspection in 2021 are the “Bagong CIS (Crisis Intervention System)” in Sablan in the first quarter and the roll out of COVID vaccines for the rest of the year. RPMC will also focus on Information dissemination to increase public awareness on the status of government-implemented projects. By Marlo Lubguban
