The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) continues to provide technical assistance to local governments, this time to provincial governments on local road management (LRM) in the implementation of KALSADA or Konkreto at Ayos na LanSAngan, ang DAan tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran.
All six provinces in CAR received a total of PhP 449,862,368 for the upgrading and rehabilitation of a total of 52 Km of provincial roads. The fund for 14 provincial road projects was directly downloaded to the respective provinces upon the endorsement of the DILG Regional Office based on the province’s compliance with the readiness criteria. It may be used for provincial core roads as prioritized in the Provincial Road Network Development Plan (PRNDP). Core road network refers to the minimum road network required to support the economic and social development of a province by providing quality linkages between the major population, industrial and cultural valuable locations within the local government.
KALSADA is a performance-based incentive program under the Local Government Support Fund. It hopes to enhance local government systems, processes and practices in local road management leading to improved local road conditions. It was developed to respond and build on the resolution of the League of Provinces of the Philippines urging the DBM and the DILG to provide for provincial road network development, in support to institutionalizing LRM in all provinces.
The program covers 74 provinces nationwide which are compliant to the Good Financial Housekeeping based on the 2014 assessment conducted by DILG. The level of funding for each province was determined through needs and performance indicators. Performance indicators refers to Special Local Road Fund (SLRF) subproject completion rate and road maintenance, while needs indicators include the need for road upgrading/ improvement, i.e. length of paved road against total provincial road length.
KALSADA calls for cost sharing scheme between the national and provincial governments based on income class. First class provinces will provide 30% share; second class, 20%, and 3rd-5th class, 10% share of their respective total project cost.
Benguet Province received the biggest allocation in CAR at PhP 88,183,248 for two projects namely, Rehabilitation & Improvement of Halsema-Madaymen and Rehabilitation & Improvement of Guinaoang-Suyoc-Gambang Prov’l Rd. Mt. Province, on the other hand, has PhP 85,627,212 for three projects namely, Improvement of Tadian-Nacawang Prov’l Rd, Improvement of Besao -Tamboan Prov’l Rd and Improvement Bontoc-Mainit Prov’l Rd, while Abra was allotted PhP 76,681,085 for the upgrading and improvement of San Juan – Tineg, Bituen – Lacub, and Sallapadan – Bucloc provincial roads.
Moreover, Apayao has three provincial road projects worth PhP 74,125,049. These are the improvement of Buluan-Mawigue-Allangigan-Karikitan Prov’l Rd, Nararagan-Consuelo (Sta.Marcela)-Balluyan (Flora) Prov’l Rd, and San Francisco-Alem-Poblacion (Pudtol) Prov’l Rd. Kalinga, on the other hand, was allotted PhP 67,734,959 for the project Rehabilitation of Bulanao – Laya – Balong Prov’l Road, while Ifugao received PhP 57,510,814 for the upgrading of Zamora-San Quintin-Bangar Road and Lamut-(Sanafe)-Hapid Road.
The funds were already downloaded to the provincial governments and project implementation have commenced and are expected to be completed by December 2016./Carol Guidangen Gano (DILG)
