OPAPP hopeful of passage of P3.8-B PAMANA budget for 2020

In a press statement sent to media on Saturday, Galvez said PAMANA will help bring “sustainable economic growth and long-lasting peace” in conflict-ridden communities across the country.

“[PAMANA] project will help us sustain holistic development in hard-to-reach areas. Projects such as farm-to-market roads, water supply systems, livelihood programs, and environmental protection initiatives are designed to be impact-driven and will hugely contribute to boosting socio-economic development in conflict-affected, vulnerable areas, and last-mile communities,” he said.

A complementary track to peace negotiations, PAMANA is anchored on the principle of winning the peace by forging strategic partnerships with national agencies in promoting more convergent delivery of goods and services and addressing regional development challenges in conflict-affected and vulnerable areas.

“We are really grateful to both houses of Congress for the support they have given to PAMANA over the years. We hope to reach more communities and implement more peace promoting and conflict-sensitive projects once our proposed PAMANA 2020 budget is approved,” Galvez added.

The areas that are benefitting from PAMANA program include Cordillera Administrative Region, Bicol, Quezon, Mindoro, Negros, Panay, Davao, Compostella Valley, Caraga, Central Mindanao, Zamboanga, Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi.

In 2019, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) earmarked a total of PHP386.862 million for PAMANA projects.

The OPAPP partnered with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the implementation of a community-driven development program for indigenous peoples (IPs); the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples for the granting of education assistance for IP communities; and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation for the provision of health care insurance.

The design and delivery of PAMANA are conflict-sensitive and peace-promoting to avoid the recurrence of violence, especially in strife-ridden communities in the Bangsamoro Region which suffered from over 40 years of armed struggle.

Galvez said it was necessary to extend development interventions to “isolated, hard-to-reach, and conflict-affected” communities through the national government’s convergence program, in a bid to ensure that “no one is left behind in the process of development.”

OPAPP director Andres Aguinaldo Jr., who also serves as the national program manager of PAMANA, is leading the series of year-end assessment and planning sessions nationwide.

Aguinaldo thanked the local government representatives for supporting the implementation of PAMANA projects in their areas.

“OPAPP will endeavor to continue the PAMANA, a program which has been a dynamic element in improving access of communities to greater socio-economic interventions being delivered by our government,” he said.