Besao, Mountain Province – This municipality is the newest recipient of an anti-poverty project of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and will be possibly included in another program.

These are the Kapit-bisig Laban sa Kahirapan Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

The KALAHI-CIDSS project that ended June last year is expanded in the next three years with additional 16 municipalities nationwide from the 184 original coverage areas. The project originally covered 13 municipalities from the provinces of Abra, Ifugao, Kalinga, and Mountain Province.

On the other hand, 4Ps is a poverty reduction strategy of the government. Beneficiaries will receive cash grants as long as they comply with the program’s conditions.

The inclusion of the municipality for KALAHI-CIDSS expansion is a result of the regional assessment conducted by the Regional Project Management Office that the National Steering Committee approved. Other municipalities included on the assessment, which was based on the directive from the National Project Management Office (NPMO), were Barlig and Tadian, also from Mountain Province.

Regional director Porfiria Bernardez said that during the regional assessment conducted for the extension, the capacity and context of the local government units to adopt the KC processes as well as their willingness and track record to provide the needed local counterparts were considered. “The LGUs were made to understand that the project is not advocating for short term gains but ultimately the institutionalization of participatory, transparency, and accountability mechanisms in governance and hence, would prefer to involve LGUs that seriously want to implement KC,” she added.

Results of the assessment revealed the municipality of Besao had the highest rating.

During the municipal visit this week, mayor Wellington Pooten said that the community-driven development processes and the bottom-up approach of project implementation made the LGU welcomed the project. “The project is very unique. It is the community’s will by prioritizing their needs and not of any politician’s decision that matters du-ring project implementation,” he added.