TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The city government of Tabuk recently launched a poverty alleviation program to answer the priority needs of its top ten identified poorest barangays namely Guilayon, Magnao, Nambucayan, Gobgob, Cudal, San Juan, San Julian, BadAo Dangwa, Bantay and Laya West.
City Planning and Development Officer Maricel Kiley said that the barangays were picked based on the 2015 Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) result which revealed that 37.3 percent of the city’s total household were below the poverty threshold. Last October, members of the City Development Council adopted the Oplan Matagoan: CULASA, BABAGO SA GUINAMMA plan which were derived from the names of said barangays, as an intervention design to introduce the needed development in said barangays to uplift their current economic status.
As a strategy, an Oplan Matagoan Committee will be organized to formulate the plan and budget for the project. They will also serve as the overall program supervisor and coordinating body of the project’s implementation with concerned department or agency.
As designed the three-year plan starts this year initially with social preparation activities. Development interventions would include livelihood programs and support infrastructures such as water supply, road and network drainage, all of which will be identified in accordance with the priority programs and projects from the CBMS results.
Aimed at improving the quality of life of communities in the ten barangays, Oplan Matagoan specifically targets reducing the city’s poverty incidence by 3 percent annually during the program period.
CBMS was recently adopted by the city government as a tool in identifying the actual poverty situation of the people to provide policy makers bases for developing plans that would efficiently address the gaps in the socio-economic conditions of communities.
By Geraldine G. Dumallig