TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The city government of Tabuk recently launched a poverty alleviation program to answer the priority needs of its top ten identified poorest barangays namely Guilayon, Magnao, Nambucayan, Gobgob, Cudal, San Juan, San Julian, Bado Dangwa, Bantay and Laya West.
City Planning and Development Officer Maricel Kiley said that the barangays were picked based on the 2015 Community Based Monitoring System (CBMS) results which revealed that 37.3 percent of the city’s total households were below the poverty threshold.
Last October, members of the City Development Council adopted the Oplan Matagoan: CULASA, BABAGO SA GUINAMMA plan which were derived from the names of said barangays, as an intervention design to introduce the needed developments in said barangays to uplift their current economic status.
As a strategy, an Oplan Matagoan Committee will be organized to formulate the plan and budget for the project. They will also serve as the overall program supervisor and coordinating body of the project’s implementation with concerned department or agency.
As designed, the three-year plan starts this year initially with social preparation activities. Development interventions would include livelihood programs and support infrastructures such as water supply, road and network drainage. All of these projects will be identified in accordance with the priority programs and projects from the CBMS results.
Aimed at improving the quality of life of communities in the 10 barangays, Oplan Matagoan has specifically targeted to reduce the city’s poverty incidence by 3 percent annually during the program period. CBMS was recently adopted by the city government as a tool in identifying the actual poverty situation of the people providing the basis for policy makers to develop plans that would efficiently address the gaps in the socioeconomic conditions of communities. **By Geraldine G. Dumallig/City Information Office
