Pilar: A Symbol of Strength

A Spanish or Portuguese word for pillar, Pilar, symbolizes strength.  This is true to Pilar town in Bohol when it adopted the process of community-driven development {CDD} in 2010.  This process has been used in the implementation of the Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services or Kalahi-CIDSS, a poverty alleviation program of the government.

Giving people the opportunity to be heard, to participate and to decide, was a new thing to them. It would be hard to change the things people get used of doing. The local government was used to plan for the people and the people were just contented to be mere recipient of the projects.
There were doubts as to the capacity of the ordinary people to implement the sub-projects in their respective barangays. However, seeing the finished sub-projects that the communities had done, the LGU decided to embrace the CDD process.

Pilar has been a recipient of Kalahi-CIDSS since 2006. In 2006 – 2010 it was under Kalahi-CIDSS: Kapangyarihan at Kaunlaran sa Barangay {KKB}. In 2012, it was under Makamasang Tugon {MT} modality funded by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Now, it implements the Kalahi CIDSS-National Community-Driven Development Program {KC-NCDDP}, which granted the municipality 3 cycles of implementation.

Since the entry of KKB Modality in 2006- 2008 and extended until 2010, the Local Government unit of Pilar observed how this new way of implementing projects is carried out. Later the LGU saw that the CDD process practiced by the program was very effective in addressing the need of every barangay.

In Kalahi-CIDSS implementation, the people themselves will be the ones to choose the sub-projects to be prioritized through the Municipal Inter-Barangay Forum {MIBF}.

Engr. Joseph Anania, Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator (MPDC) said that the CDD process made them realize that all barangays should be given equal chances and equal opportunities of being prioritized in order to apply and experience the CDD process.

However, according to Anania, there are small and there are big barangays in terms of income, which greatly affect their capacity to provide local counterpart contribution {LCC}. With the LGU’s desire to lay down an equal and even playing field for all the barangays regardless of its financial capacity, it established a Local Resource Mobilization Program. The LGU did it by pooling the meager local resources from every barangay and municipality, forming it into a common fund open for utilization of any prioritized barangays during the MIBF.

The said local resource mobilization program was established through the collective efforts and strong support of previous and present local officials, members of the municipal inter-agency committee, barangay officials and community volunteers.

By doing this, the local government has ensured that funds are available for the barangays need for local counterpart.

“The Municipality designed a scheme to gather funds for the prioritized sub-projects. Each of the 21 barangays would have to allocate P75, 000 annually with a combined total allocation of 1,575,000.00. The municipality would also allocate P75,000 or more per year, which will approximately totaled to 1,950,000.00 a year. With this amount the Municipality was able to fund 4 sub-projects using only the amount pooled by the Municipal and Barangay Local Government Unit,” said Aniana.

Before the entry of Makamasang Tugon modality under the Millennium Challenge Corporation in 2012, Pilar has already started injecting the process of prioritization. The Local Government Unit included schemes used in the MIBF and participatory situation analysis (PSA), where non-prioritized sub-projects were accommodated to have equal distribution of funds to barangays for the implementation of their LGU funded sub-projects.

The decision made by the local Government Unit of Pilar to adopt the CDD process is very effective and with that they were able to fund 12 sub-projects using combined resources of both Barangay and Municipal funds.

Engr. Aniana said that as Pilar continue to implement its own version named Local Kalahi-CIDSS, the municipality was able to purchase rescue vehicles for all 21 barangays. This, after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Bohol.

He also said that with all the learning insights they got from KKB to MT and now to NCDDP, the barangay and the Municipal LGUs see to it that the process they have adopted is sustained and put to good use.

The sub-projects that the community volunteers have worked hard for, manifested how CDD process of Kalahi – CIDSS brought changes in their community.

Pilar is a fourth class municipality in the province of Bohol with a poverty incidence rate of 62.2% in 2006 survey; it went up to 67.1 in 2009, but lowered down to 38.8 in 2012.

“KALAHI CIDSS opened our eyes, our hearts and our minds to discover and prove to ourselves that local communities, acting in unity and working together, is capable of creating a difference in sustaining community development in the hands of the empowered people,” Anania proudly said.