P3.9B fund for Leyte economic plan ok’d

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The Leyte Provincial Development Council (PDC) has allocated a P3.9-billion fund for the prime economic program, as part of next year’s P7.6-billion annual investment plan (AIP), which was approved by the Leyte Provincial Board recently.

Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla told The Freeman that the prime economic program, dubbed as “Leyte EconoMICs,” is intended for poverty alleviation, after the super typhoon Yolanda devastation in 2013, and for the reduction of the Leyte’s poverty incidence by eight percent in 2022.

Petilla said the Leyte EconoMICs program is a community-based approach designed to increase the income of the people in the countryside via community organizing, skills training, capacity building, and livelihood development.

One of the strategies of the program is the introduction of various livelihood interventions on modern agricultural undertakings, such as in compact farming for high-value crops, rice farming, livestock production, and fishery, he said.

The governor further said that the strategy would include the introduction of non-agricultural interventions: Skills training and livelihood development on carpentry, dress making and other household income-generating endeavors. (FREEMAN)