TABUK CITY, Kalinga—The city government recently launched a poverty alleviation program to answer the priority needs of its top 10 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 the barangays were picked based on the 2015 Community Based Monitoring System 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 “Oplan Matagoan: Culasa, Babago Sa Guinamma” plan, derived from the names of the barangays, as an intervention to introduce the needed development and uplift their current economic status.
Aimed at improving the quality of life of communities in the 10 barangays, Oplan Matagoan specifically targets reducing the city’s poverty incidence by 3 percent annually during the program period.
An Oplan Matagoan Committee will be organized to formulate the plan and budget for the project, Kiley said. It will also serve as the overall program supervisor and coordinating body of the project’s implementation with the concerned department or agency.
The three-year plan starts this year, initially with social preparation activities, Kiley added. Development interventions include livelihood programs and support infrastructures such as water supply, road and network drainage, all of which will be identified in keeping with the priority programs and projects from the CBMS results.
CBMS was recently adopted by the city government to identify the actual poverty situation of the people and provide policy makers basis for developing plans to efficiently address the gaps in the socio-economic conditions of communities.