Angeles City – Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 3, through Regional Director Florida M. Dijan, awarded checks to the local government units of Mexico and Masantol on April 7, 2015, during the Pampanga Orientation Meeting on the Implementation of 2015 Bottom-up Budgeting Projects, held at Lewis Grand Hotel in this City.

 The Php 350,000 check for Masantol, intended for the provision of Potable Water Supply, was received by: acting Municipal Treasurer Marina Josieriza F. Paras; Municipal Agriculture Officer Arlene Bonifacio; and, Ronald Pangilinan of the Mayor’s Office.

For Mexico, the check amounting to Php 650,000 was handed to: Municipal Accountant Perlita Lagman; Municipal Treasurer Avelina Reyes; Engineer Jesus Punzalan; and, Municipal Agriculture Technician Lauly Pineda. This amount is the remaining 20% of the whole Php 4.7M budget allocated for the concreting and improvement of local roads located at Barangays Laug, Gubat, and Santa Maria, and another road improvement at Barangays Cauayan and Buenavista. The first tranche of funds (80%) was awarded last year.

The projects were part of the 15-M worth of projects identified by the respective Local Poverty Reduction Action Teams (LPRAT) of Masantol and Mexico for BUB Fiscal Year 2014. LPRAT members, composed of an equal number of representatives from the Civil Society Organizations, and the Local government, underwent series of meetings and workshops to come up with the Local Poverty Reduction Action Plan (LPRAP).

Geared towards reducing poverty in the country, BOTTOM-UP BUDGETING program was initiated in 2013 headed by DILG. In 2014, selected local government units had an allocation of 15 million peso-worth of projects, all cities and municipalities gets 12.5 million for this year, and another 15 million in 2016.
RD Dijan, Regional Poverty Reduction Action Team (RPRAT) Chairperson, in her Inspirational message told the guests and participants “We’ve been doing quite well in the region, when it comes to BUB. And so I thank all the cooperation and coordination efforts of everyone for making the Region, the first in the implementation in the country.”

The activity was sponsored and originally scheduled by the Department of Agriculture, but to maximize the opportunity, other national agencies were also invited to discuss the implementation guidelines of each agency.