Western Visayas needs about P380 billion to get back on its feet from the economic fallout from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
The amount, contained in the Regional Recovery Plan (RRP), is intended for programs and projects to be implemented in the region.
The RRP was approved by the Regional Development Council (RDC-6) on July 2.
The bulk amounting to P253.286 billion of the proposed fund is alloted to support health, livelihood, and economic activities.
The social services sector gets P83.638 billion; governance, P37.144 billion; environment, P3.839; and infrastructure and transportation, P2.210 billion.
Ro-Ann Bacal, regional director of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA-6), said the RRP will serve as the blueprint for recovery efforts and sustainable economic development under the so-called “new normal”.
The RRP is consistent with the “We Recover as One” technical paper of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATFF) Technical Working Group for Anticipatory and Forward Planning.
Bacal said they came up with the RRP after a series of multi-level and multi-sector focus group discussions among stakeholders from local government units, regional line agencies (RLAs), academe and private sector.
“The RRP identifies the strategies that need to be pursued to put in place new norms and sets of protocols in all sectors of society,” she explained.
The region, based on the RRP, suffered an estimated loss of P17.62 billion due to quarantine measures implemented contain the spread of COVID-19.
Broken down, the services sector incurred P9.81 billion in losses; industry sector, P7.81 billion; and agriculture sector, P3.52 billion.IMT
Photo by Arnold Almacen
