(Davao City) — Regional Development Council (RDC) XI conducted a meeting-dialogue with Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Wendel E. Avisado on 15 November 2019 at the NEDA-RDC XI Center, Davao City. The meeting was conducted in response to the recommendation manifested by Cong. Isidro T. Ungab, 3rd District Representative of Davao City and Chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, during the CY 2019 RDC XI Advisory Committee meeting held on 25 October 2019.
During the meeting, Sec. Avisado presented the Davao Region Expenditure Allocations for FY 2018 to FY 2020, whereby the Secretary noted that 13.38% or PhP 1.17 billion out of the PhP 8.75 billion available appropriations for FY 2019 was released to Davao Region – the highest among all Regions as of November 2019.
The Midterm Update of the Davao Regional Development Plan (DRDP) 2017 – 2022, with emphasis on the RDC XI-endorsed flagship programs and the RDC XI-endorsed FY 2020 budget, were also discussed during the meeting. Sec. Avisado stressed that protocol towards the inclusion of programs and projects for budget allocation shall always be observed. In his remarks, the Secretary signified that for FY 2021 budget proposals and onwards, he will be requiring all agency central offices to attach the respective RDC endorsements for PAPs that are included in their budget proposals. The need to remind national government agencies to heed National Budget Memorandum (NBM) No. 131 was emphasized, particularly the provision on giving RDCs feedback on the status of RDC-endorsed budget proposals by accomplishing Budget Preparation (BP) Form C. BP Form C allows the Agency Central Offices (ACOs) to inform the RDCs regarding the budget allocation, status of RDC recommendations as well as provide feedback on the inclusion/non-inclusion of PAPs in the ACO’s budget proposals. RDC XI conducts a yearly Budget Review and Consultation to ensure that vertical linkage between the regional and national plans is strengthened.
Invited to the meeting-dialogue were Davao Region local chief executives and select government agencies. Other relevant matters were further discussed during the meeting-dialogue such as the status of implementation of Davao Region high priority projects and the school assessment and rehabilitation efforts of DepEd XI in response to the recent Mindanao earthquakes, among others.— Laurence Gido, NEDA XI