Kalahi-CIDSS (Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services) in Antique
A three-day local government unit (LGU) forum was recently held in preparation for the implementation of the Kalahi-CIDSS (Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services) in Antique province this 2012.
Leo Quintilla, Deputy Regional Director of the Kalahi-CIDSS which is under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), said that the forum held on January 12-14 at the Iloilo Grand Hotel was attended by the mayors and their municipal councilors, who expressed interest in the implementation of the Kalahi-CIDSS as a community-driven development (CDD) strategy intended to reduce poverty in the countryside.
”We hope that by March we could already have the memorandum of agreement signed with the local government executives,” Quintilla said.
Antique Provincial Social Welfare and Development Officer Lazaro G. Petinglay, who also attended the forum, said that he had been lobbying with the DSWD for the past years for the implementation of the Kalahi-CIDSS in the province and that he is happy it could finally be realized.
“I have been asking for the Kalahi-CIDSS from DSWD for I believe it could greatly alleviate the economic situations of the Antiquenos because of the many projects that could be put up,” Petinglay said.
The Kalahi-CIDSS would be implemented in the eight towns of Antique province that would be beneficiaries of the more than P113.85 million grant from the people of the United States of America through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) this year.
The beneficiaries of the MCC grant are Pandan, San Remigio, Valderrama, Culasi, Anini-y, Bugasong, Laua-an and Caluya towns. Each of the total 253 barangays of these eight beneficiary towns would receive P450,000, which is an indicative amount from the MCC grant.
Since the Kalahi-CIDSS is community-driven, the barangay folks of the eight towns would then be the ones to identify their much-needed projects like day care center, water system, farm-to-market road, hanging bridge, and foot bridge.
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