The Department of Social Welfare and Development – Kapit-Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) conducted an orientation for the department heads of the municipality of Calinog, Iloilo for the implementation of the PHP7.5 million incentive grant.

KALAHI-CIDSS Community Development Officer III Evone Pendon briefed the attendees regarding the incentive grant. The PH7.5 million is an incentive grant given to cities or municipalities with 20 or more returning families under the Balik Probinsya program. The town of Calinog has 23 returning families. The government has already provided them with support packages amounting to more than PHP 2 million. Though the town is not new to the KALAHI-CIDSS implementation, there were concerns regarding the implementation of the Balik Probinsya incentive grant.

Calinog is already an old KALAHI-CIDSS area. The government has already funded more than PHP176 million in subprojects in the different modalities. KALAHI-CIDSS Financial Analyst III Mary Jane Villa said among those concerns raised by the different department heads are the upcoming barangay elections and the opening of new community accounts for the prioritized barangay. This might affect the implementation of the proposed projects once there is a new set of elected barangay officials. Subsequently, there would be changes in the documents. The opening of community accounts specifically for the project and the procurement process were also discussed during the meeting.

KALAHI-CIDSS requires a specific account since the funds for the project are released directly to the community account of the barangay. While, in the procurement process, Republic Act RA 9194 (the new government Procurement Act) shall be applied in the implementation of the Balik Probinsya incentive grant.

The municipality of Calinog led by Mayor Francisco Calvo will look into every detail of the project implementation before the town will ink a memorandum of agreement with the DSWD. As a requirement, the Sangguniang Bayan will have to pass a resolution allowing the mayor to enter into a memorandum of agreement for the implementation of the project.