by Ghian Karlo S. Belonio
Wow! Gensan. Another milestone for the advancement of our
country has been set up last May 12-14, 2014 at Phela Grande Hotel of Gen.
Santos City. The National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) conducted its Second
Round of Regional Assemblies on Harnessing Basic Sector/Civil Society
Collectivity and Capacities on the Ground Seminar.
The participants of the said event were the different
delegates all across South, Western, and Central Mindanao and General Santos
City, with the latter as the host city. The core purpose of the three-day
seminar is to promote People’s Participation in decision-making as amended by
the 1987 Philippine Constitution Sections 15 and 16.
The participants were then divided into groups that would
represent each of the 14 sectors currently existing in the society these days.
These sectors are the Farmers and Landless Rural Workers (FLRW), Fisherfolk
Indigenous People, Urban Poor, Workers in the Informal Sector (WIS), Formal
Labor and Migrant Workers (FLMW), Women, Senior Citizens, Youth and Students,
Children, Persons with Disabilities (PWD’s), Non-Government Organizations
(NGO’s), Cooperatives, and the Victims of Disasters and Calamities (VDC).
On the first day, the agenda about the Bottom’s Up Budgeting
(BUB) was spearheaded by Cathy Ocampo of the NAPC Central Office in Manila. “The
reason why there is BUB is to give power back to the people – the Filipinos.
BUB’s are made annually due to the jurisdictions of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” C.
Aquino’s platform of “Daang Matuwid.”
Together with BUB, some projects are also working to promote
progress in our society. These are the
Grass Roots Participatory Budgeting (GRPB) and Budget ni Boss (BNB). BNB, GRPB,
and BNB are sharing the same mission in their programs. Their missions are to
(1) Institute institutional governance reforms through incentives; (2)
Responsiveness of the National Government to the local needs; (3) Participation
of all Filipino in planning and budgeting; (4) Empower citizens – organize,
mobilize, unity from agenda.
Ocampo also stated the poverty incidence in our country, that
almost half of our country’s population are considerably poor. That is why the national
government is implementing programs to cease these problems. One of those is
the Regional Poverty Reduction Action Team (RPRAT). RPRAT, together with the
Local Government Units (LGU’s) are working side by side to solve the crisis in
our society.
Ocampo also talked about the National Budget Memorandum 121
and the Joint Circular Memorandum (JCM). Under the JCM are 4 major streams in
our government, these are the DILG, DSWD, DBM, and NAPC. The purpose of JMC is
to regulate the continuation of R.A. No. 10352 (GAA FY 2013) or the projects
enacted last year and the 2014 Appropriations under R.A. No. 10633 (GAA FY
2014). The scope of guidelines in the JCM selection includes the (1) Fund
Release; (2) Project Validation; (3) Project Replacement.
BUB Projects made this year are only valid up until December
31, 2015 except the DOE Programs. On the second day, the focus was all
subjected to the sectorial mapping and project application for the BUB 2-14.
The sectorial mapping is primarily concerned about the updates of all projects
and programs of BUB 2013. Some programs and organizations that were not able to
pass the sectorial mapping are subjected to be marked off the list of the
organizations and programs.
By afternoon until evening, the time was consumed greatly by
the applications of new organizations with programs for its members.
Representations of the applications of new organizations were strictly observed
by all participants and NAPC facilitators. Due to the line time consumes by the
representations, the scheduled solidarity night was suspended.
On the third and final day of seminar, discussions were
continued by USEC, Erlinda Tulpio. Overall, the participants were guided and
informed regarding anti-poverty projects and programs.
