Balaba pushes for fast-tracking of CBMS completion

COUNCILOR Joyleen Mercedes Balaba, chair of the City Council committee on social services, on Monday sought the support of her colleagues to fast track the completion of the city’s Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS).

“The pandemic has shown us the need and importance of the community-based monitoring system. We had hoped for a much more systematic distribution of government assistance leaving no room for prejudices or any political intrigues,” she cited in her special report.

The councilor said the city has set up its CBMS even before the pandemic after seeing the need to get the necessary data for targeting beneficiaries for its social services program, and to have a comprehensive poverty analysis and needs prioritization as the city moves for metropolization.

Balaba said she was however informed by the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) that only P5 million was appropriated for the program, which is short of the needed allocation of P72 million as quoted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The timetable given by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the PSA to local government units for the nationwide adoption of the CBMS is this year, 2022, she pointed out.

With this, the councilor requested for a joint meeting with the committee on finance chaired by Councilor Edna Dahino, the Local Finance committee, with the CPDO, City DILG Director, and City Social Welfare Department to discuss the appropriation of sufficient funds and other concerns for the completion of the city’s CBMS.

Signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on April 17, 2019, RA 11315 or the Community-Based Monitoring System Act, defines the CBMS as an organized technology-based system of collecting, processing, and validating necessary disaggregated data that may be used for planning, program implementation, and impact monitoring at the local level.