NRO VIII MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
2ND QUARTER OF 2015
This quarter was marked by unexpected events such as the turn-over of Yolanda
monitoring function from the Office of the Presidential Assistance for Rehabilitation and Recovery
(OPARR) to NEDA, the visit of the NEDA Director-General to Region VIII and NRO VIII, and joint
meetings of the Regional Development Council, Region VIII with Samar Province officials.
Regular activities were continued to be undertaken as planned. Below are the highlights of
accomplishments per MFO.
For MFO 1 (Socio-Economic and Physical Planning and Policy Services), the staff
reviewed and provided technical advice on several socio-economic policy concerns such as that
of the Matnog Port Congestion, request for Farm Machinery by the Sugarcane Planters
Association of Eastern Visayas, request for technical support for the Danajon Bank Double Barrier
Reef Project of CEEBOSOLE and policy review on the Bottom-up-Budgeting (BuB) Funds
Liquidation Bottlenecks affecting LGUs’ Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) compliance,
Under MFO 2 or Technical Support and Advisory Services, the RDC Full Council had one
joint meeting with the Samar Provincial Development Council while the sectoral committees and
inter-agency committees had 14 meetings. Among the matters tackled in these meetings were
the proposed Catbalogan Sky Mega City for Public-Private Partnership, the need to devise and
implement an effective Queuing System at the Port of Matnog in Sorsogon, the conduct of RDC
VIII Peace and Development Caravan, RDC support to the Senior High School Program
Implementation in Region VIII and participation of RDC VIII Private Sector Representatives
(PSRs) to the PSR National Convention.
For MFO 3 (Investment Programming Services), the staff reviewed FY 2016 budget
proposals of 20 regional line agencies and 9 state colleges and universities in Region VIII. It also
evaluated two projects, namely, the Reconstruction and Strengthening of Visayas State University
(VSU)-Tolosa Campus and the Inclusive Partnership of Agricultural Competitiveness (IPAC)
Program.
Under MFO 4 (Monitoring and Evaluation Services), the Project Monitoring and Evaluation
Division of NRO VIII conducted four (4) field monitoring visits and monitored 295 projects. NRO
VIII created an adhoc NRO VIII Yolanda Project Management Unit which coordinated the
groundwork for the establishment of the Yolanda Project Monitoring Office. It also coordinated
the survey and focused-group discussions with program/project beneficiaries in Tacloban and
Palo for the outcome monitoring of the Yolanda Resettlement Cluster.
In terms of General Administrative and Support Services, the NRO VIII conducted Training
on Project Development participated by new NRO VIII staff and a number of LGU staff. Training
on Resolution Writing was also conducted for all NRO VIII staff. Efforts continued for the
rehabilitation and renovation of NEDA VIII building/facilities and compound whereby earth filling
to improve ground elevation was completed and design/cost estimates for various renovations
works were prepared. Learning a lesson from the past particularly with the experience with super
typhoon Yolanda, the office prepared an NRO VIII Disaster Resiliency Plan 2015-2017 to prepare
the office and the staff from hazardous events such as typhoon, earthquake and fire.