Region 12 (Soccsksargen) has emerged as the top implementer in the entire country for road projects funded under the national government’s Conditional Matching Grant to Provinces (CMGP) program.

Josephine Leysa, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 12 director, said Monday that Soccsksargen posted the highest physical and financial accomplishment rating among other areas in terms of implemented projects in over three years.

Citing a report from the DILG-Office of Project Development Services (OPDS), she said Soccsksargen recorded a physical accomplishment rate of 95.80 percent for CMGP projects funded from 2016 to 2019.

Leysa said Region 10 or Northern Mindanao achieved 95 percent, followed by Region 13 or Caraga with 92.2 percent, Region 11 or Davao Region with 91.90 percent and Region IV-B or Mimaropa with 91.80 percent.

The region also posted the highest fund disbursement with 87.74 percent, followed by Region 10 with 80.25 percent, Region 3 or Central Luzon with 75.81 percent, Region 13 with 75.68 percent, and Cordillera Administrative Region with 72.82 percent, she said.

Leysa said the DILG-OPDS Technical Group, which conducted a mid-year implementation review on the CMGP early this month, cited that the rollout of projects in the area was so far manageable and no major problems were encountered.

She credited the successful implementation of the CMGP projects to the close cooperation between the local government units and the agency’s Project Development Management Unit.

“We are implementing very well because of our LGUs,” the official said in a statement.

From 2016 to 2019, she said a total of 63 CMGP-funded road projects worth PHP2.919 billion and covering 198.762 kilometers were implemented in the region.

She said 24 of these were in South Cotabato, 18 in Sultan Kudarat, 12 in Sarangani, and nine in North Cotabato.

The CMGP is the successor of the “Konkreto at Ayos na Lansangan ang Daan Tungo sa Pangkalahatang Kaunlaran” (KALSADA) program, which was launched by the national government in 2016 following the completion of the Australian Aid’s Provincial Road Management Facility that covered 10 selected provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The program aims to partly address the poor state of provincial roads across the country and to improve the competency of provinces in local road management and in incorporating reforms in public financial management. (PNA)