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PARTIDO DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION: A REPLICABLE MODEL IN DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

THE CREATION

Partido District is the 3rd of the 4 congressional districts of Camarines Sur. It has a land area of 197,306 has. which is 37.46% more than a third of the province land area. The total population is 341,487 representing 22 % of the population of the province spread in the ten (10) covered municipalities. It is predominantly an agricultural area richly endowed with natural resources. These natural resources are just waiting to be appropriately tapped and developed to help its constituents improve their quality of life.

There are many constraints, though, in pushing for the development of the area to its full potential. As the term Partido connotes (coined from the Spanish word “ Partir ” which means separate), the district is not within the development highway. Its municipalities are not easily accessible by land and mostly falling under 5 th and 6 th class.

The need to orchestrate the development efforts within the district was clearly recognized by Cong. Arnulfo P. Fuentebella and overwhelmingly supported by the local executives and officials. House Bill No. 11526 was sponsored by Cong. Fuentebella proposing for the creation of the Partido Development Authority. The assistance of the National Economic and Development Authority Regional Office 5 was sought to help in the conduct of consultative meetings with the different local government units and private sector representatives. The main output is the Land Use Plan of the District.

With the consensus decision of the ten (10) local government units, and the technical documents prepared, the proposal for the creation of PDA was evaluated based on the criteria given by NEDA, as follows:

  1. there should be no infusion of government funds;
  2. the task of the office is to address effectively and efficiently the urgent needs of the depressed areas covered;
  3. NGO is weak;
  4. No existing development plan for the area; and
  5. Lack of infrastructure and physical development.

Having passed these evaluation criteria and sponsored at the Senate by then. Senator Gloria Macapal-Arroyo, Republic Act 7820 was enacted on the 25 th day of July 1994 creating the Partido Development Administration. The creation of PDA is consistent with the policy of the state to accelerate the development of lagging regions and districts in order to catch up with more advanced regions and districts through an integrated and coordinated approach.

ITS MANDATES

With a corporate personality, PDA has been mandated to discharge the following functions and powers:

  1. encourage the creation of economic zones and/or industrial estates
  2. contract foreign and/or local loans and receive grants to implement programs
  3. undertake measures to source out funds for the district's program
  4. formulate and implement a comprehensive and integrated development program for the district
  5. conduct inventory of resources
  6. pass over all plans and projects proposed by LGUs and public agencies and private enterprises
  7. recommend policies and programs affecting the area
  8. promote investments for the area

ITS GOVERNING BODY AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Under the law, the supervision and direction of PDA shall be the responsibility of the Board of Directors which is composed of the following:

  1. ten (10) Private Sector Representatives, one from each member-municipality;
  2. ten (10) Mayors of the member-municipality;
  3. the incumbent congressman; and
  4. the Administrator of PDA.

This body meets every 2 nd Friday of the month. To date, PDA has already been under three sets of Board of Directors.

Prior to the formal hiring of the PDA core staff in October of 1997, the MPDCs, line agencies and congressional staff with the assistance of NEDA V continued the consultative meetings. Each month an LGU sponsored a meeting to continuously orient the people about PDA. Within this period, the Partido District Master Plan was also formulated by a private consultancy firm using the inputs from the consultative meetings.

ITS PLANNING AND COORDINATING MECHANISM

Following the provisions of the RA 7820, wherein the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinators have been mandated to be involved in the day-to-day operations of PDA, the ten (10) MPDCs of the Partido District was organized into a Technical Committee. This committee meets every month to discuss the development concerns of the district and to ensure that the plans of the respective LGUs are aligned with the Master Plan for the District.

During Technical Committee meetings, line agencies and non-government-organizations are being invited to present their respective plans and programs for the district and at the same time be oriented of the mandates of PDA. This approach has been adopted to mainstream PDA as a development planning and coordinating body of the district, to pool and maximize the use of the resources and to focus the efforts of the development actors within the district.

Several partnerships have been either informally forged or formalized through Memoranda of Agreements. The Ateneo de Naga University Institute of Tourism has a MOA with PDA in the preparation of the Tourism Plan and in the promotion and marketing of the tourism destinations while the Partido State University shall be our partner in conducting researches. PSU just completed the updated Socio-Economic and Physical Profile of Partido District.

A better future for Partido, with people better skilled, more productive and enjoying the fruits of development; agriculture achieving greater productivity and industry reaching higher levels of efficiency; an economy made accessible to domestic and even foreign markets.

The journey to the limits of collective determination begins, and ends when Partido no longer means separate, and instead, becomes one solid building, indestructible piece in the blocks of our national development and progress.