Three provinces in Region XII were among the country’s league of top performers when it comes to implementing the national government’s Conditional Matching Grant to Provinces (CMGP) Program, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Central Office said in a recent virtual meeting.

The provinces of Cotabato, Sarangani, and South Cotabato ranked fourth, seventh, and ninth, respectively, among the said 10 top performing provincial governments led by the Provinces of Nueva Viscaya, Camarines Norte, and Masbate.

Meanwhile, the province of Sultan Kudarat ranked eighth among the program’s list of 29 average performers. At least 13 other provinces were identified as slow performers by the Department’s monitoring division.

The Department explained, the provinces’ performance was based on the conducted Absorptive Capacity Assessment, which measures the LGUs’ “capacity to implement the project vis-à-vis the allocated amount based on the prescribed implementation timelines.”

DILG XII Regional Director Josephine Cabrido-Leysa, CESO III, lauded the provinces performance and dedication to the program and vowed the Department’s continuous support.

CMGP is an institutional reform and governance program of the national government that specifically aims to improve the delivery of road services in the provincial level. Provincial Government-beneficiaries are given one year to complete their CMGP-funded road projects from the receipt of funds from the Bureau of Treasury (BTr).

From 2016 to 2019, CMGP funded 63 provincial road projects in the Region worth Php 2.919 billion covering at least 198.762 kilometers of road.