By Elmer V. Recuerdo / Correspondent
TACLOBAN CITY—The Regional Development Council (RDC) in Eastern Visayas unanimously approved the selection of Presidential Management Staff Undersecretary Ferdinand B. Cui, who hails from Catbalogan City, as the new advisor of the RDC 8 Advisory Committee (AdCom).
The selection is in response to Cui’s discussion on the “President’s Governance Agenda Towards Responsive Results Delivery for Juana and Juan de la Cruz” during the First Quarter 2017 RDC 8 Full Council Meeting, presided by the new RDC 8 Chairman Tacloban City Mayor Cristina G. Romualdez on March 22, 2017.
Cui strongly advocated among the officers and members of the council to place the people at the center of all RDC strategies and challenged the council to transform from a coordinative body to a collaborative and integrative mechanism by adopting the whole-of-government approach.
He said this can be done through integrated governance, which should result to the delivery of result outcomes, such as poverty alleviation, reduced inequality and maximized demographic dividend. Interagency convergence and national governance and local governance convergence were identified as key factors in achieving integrated governance and can be achieved through the conduct of results-oriented planning, budgeting, implementation and monitoring and evaluation.
Prior to his selection as advisor of RDC 8’s AdCom, Cui told the BusinessMirror in an interview that a special focus for Samar Island’s three provinces is already being discussed in the Cabinet.
“The President and the Cabinet are cognizant that all three provinces are among the poorest in the country,” he said. “May namumuo nang special focus ngayon and pinag-uusapan na sa Cabinet.” Cui said the problem facing Samar is similar to what Bohol experienced 15 years ago.
“Bohol had a problem with peace and order and underdevelopment 15 years ago. But, look where Bohol is now,” he said. “The key is parallel efforts in addressing underdevelopment and peace and order. You cannot separate development from security.”
These two are like twins, they are two sides of the same coin.”
Cui said the porrest amoing the poor in Samar Island are the fishermen and coconut farmers. “The solution should directly address these two sectors. The challenge is how to wean them out from poverty.”