DAVAO CITY, July 4 – The Regional Development Council in Davao Region is set to be reorganized in August 2013 following the election of a new set of local officials for the term 2013-2016 and the selection of a new batch of Private Sector Representatives in July 2013.
The RDC XI is the highest policy-making body tasked to facilitate regional development through the formulation of development plans and investment programs, conduct judicious review on the appropriation of resources, direction setting and the coordination of the economic and social development efforts of local government units, agency regional offices, state universities and colleges and special development authorities in the region.
During the RDC-XI end-of-term meeting on June 26, then outgoing Davao City Mayor and RDC-XI chairperson Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio articulated the milestones of the Council for the past three years.
Citing the directions that the region has set in 2010, Duterte-Carpio was pleased to report on Davao Region’s expanded absorptive capacity for employment having sustained the 95 percent level in terms of employment rates in 2011 and 2012.
“This could only mean that we have succeeded in our efforts to provide more employment opportunities to our people,” she was quoted in her State of the Region Address (SORA) during the meeting.
Still in her SORA, Duterte-Carpio mentioned that in terms of value, the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) had been increasing and the region rebounded as the top economy among the Mindanao Regions in Davao Region’s poverty incidence was also still the lowest among Mindanao regions, she added.
On programs and projects, Duterte-Carpio cited the Maramag-Bunawan 230kV Transmission Project, the Sibulan Hydro-Electric Power Plant in Davao del Sur, the reconstruction of the Baganga Bridge, the Mindanao Cancer Center, the upgrading of District Hospitals of Kapalong, Carmen, and Samal in Davao del Norte, and the construction of the Modern Rice Processing Complex in Davao del Sur as among the results of the project development efforts of the Council in the past 3 years.
In terms of strengthening collaboration and interface of public and private sectors, Duterte-Carpio mentioned that the Council has embarked and successfully institutionalized the conduct of LGU consultations for the Annual Investment Program (AIP) which resulted to improved coordination among NGAs, LGUs, as well as the civil society, and better complementation of resources.
It has also tightened the link between investment programming and budgeting, ensuring that proposed programs and projects in the RDIP are funded by way of their inclusion in agency Central Offices’ budgets.
The Council has pushed for initiatives and policy recommendations relating to mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction/Climate Change Adaptation (DRR/CCA) in sub-national planning, addressing issues in the Diwalwal Mineral Reservation Area, supporting the region’s priority industries, rationalizing public higher education through the establishment of the Davao Regional State University System (DRSUS), mainstreaming gender dimensions, promoting peace and development in local planning, anticipating future energy requirements through profiling of renewable sources of energy, among others.
The updated Davao Region Development Plan (RDP), 2014-2016, revalidated RDP Results Matrices, Regional Development Investment Program (RDIP) 2014-2016 were approved during the meeting for endorsement to the incoming set of RDC XI officials as the legacy of the current Council.
Duterte-Carpio said that she was hopeful that the collaboration and convergent efforts shall be sustained and strengthened so that the Region will make a mark in its quest for improving the quality of life of the people of Davao Region as the nation’s rising global frontier.
Duterte-Carpio was appointed by His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III in December 2010 as Chairperson of RDC XI. Mr. Vicente T. Lao, RDC XI private sector representative (PSR) who was then outgoing RDC XI Chair for 2007-2010, was appointed as Co-Chair.
Mayor Duterte-Carpio became the first lady RDC XI Chair, as well as the first to be appointed from the government sector since the reorganization of the RDC XI in 1986.
Its past chairpersons, Atty. Jesus V. Ayala (who served for 20 years) and Mr. Vicente T. Lao were from the private sector.
Following her appointment as chairperson of RDC-XI, Duterte-Carpio was elected as Chairperson of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Board Regional Development Committee-Mindanao Area (RDCom-Mindanao) during its reorganizational meeting on 20 January 2011.
She was given a significant role in the NEDA Board-RDCom as the voice of Mindanao’s policy concerns specifically those taken up by RDCom-Mindanao.
The RDCom is chaired by the Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director General and is comprised of the Secretaries of DBM and DILG, 3 RDC Chairs representing Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, and 4 Regional Development Experts from the private sector and academe as its members, to include RDC XI Co-Chair Vicente T. Lao.
Chair Duterte-Carpio thanked all the members of the Council, especially RDC XI Private Sector Representative Vicente T. Lao and NEDA XI Regional Director Maria Lourdes D. Lim who ably assisted her as the Council’s Co-Chair and Vice-chairperson, respectively. (RGA/CLC/NEDA-XI/PIA XI)
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