PROVIDING FOR THE GUIDELINES ON THE ALLOCATION, RELEASE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE 1997 POVERTY ALLEVIATION FUND

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WHEREAS, human resource development and poverty alleviation together with
measures to establish globally competitive industries are vital components in
the government’s objective of reducing the nation’s poverty incidence from 35.7
percent in 1994 to 30 percent by 1998;

WHEREAS, to focus initial intensive poverty alleviation measures, the 1996
Poverty Alleviation Fund was implemented in the most depressed and isolated
provinces of the country namely, the twenty priority provinces, and those in
Mindanao, particularly the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM);

WHEREAS, the 1996 National Anti-Poverty Summit defined the priority
geographic areas where the SRA shall be implemented: (1) all regions,
particularly ARMM; (2) all provinces, particularly the 20 priority provinces;
(3) all municipalities, particularly 5th and 6th class municipalities; and, (4)
convergence sites as ecosystems;

WHEREAS, in order to make further headway in the war against poverty and
institutionalize the minimum basic needs (MBN) approach and convergence policy
necessary to enhance the effectiveness of government anti-poverty programs, the
other depressed communities in the country particularly those in the fifth and
sixth class municipalities, as well as those urban poor communities in the
cities outside the National Capital Region (NCR), must be drawn into the focus
areas of the Social Reform Agenda;

WHEREAS, the 1997 General Appropriations Act provides for a Poverty
Alleviation Fund (PAF) to address the six most unmet basic minimum needs of
poor communities based on initial surveys of the Presidential Commission to
Fight Poverty (PCFP) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development
(DSWD), and enable the full installation and institutionalization of the MBN
approach and a community-based information system (CBIS) for poverty tracking;

WHEREAS, to facilitate the multi-level and multi-dimensional implementation
of the PAF, there is a need to clearly inform and advice all concerned on the
allocation formula and access procedure that will be adopted in the utilization
of the PAF;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FIDEL
V. RAMOS, President of the Republic of the
Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, do hereby order the
adoption of the following guidelines for the allocation and implementation of
the 1997 Poverty Alleviation Fund, net of reserves and administrative overhead
cost:

SECTION 1. The installation and maintenance of the MBN/CBIS shall be
implemented nationwide, giving priority to the nationally-coordinated and
locally-initiated convergence areas in the fifth and sixth class
municipalities. The National Statistics Office (NSO) with the Presidential
Commission to Fight Poverty (PCFP), the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)
shall allocate the funds and implement the program on the basis of the status
and funding requirements on the Minimum Basic Needs – Community Based
Information System (MBN-CBIS) installation in each municipality.

SEC. 2. The resettlement and housing program components to be administered
by the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the National Home Mortgage and
Finance Corporation (NHMFC) shall be equitably or equally allocated to all
convergence areas in cities outside of the NCR, considering the ability of the
cities to finance resettlement and housing programs as measured by their
average per capita incomes of the last three years and the number of poor
households in the said localities. The allocation of funds among the cities
shall be done together with the League of Cities. The resettlement program shall
give priority to the implementation of programs in NHA pre-identified sites
while the housing programs shall be implemented as part of the Community
Mortgage Program of the NHMFC.

SEC. 3. The rest of the six (6) other program components of the PAF with
total funding of P1.4908 billion, shall be implemented in the fifth and sixth
class municipalities of the country’s 77 provinces.

SEC. 4. Each program component of the PAF shall be administered by the
designated principal agencies in coordination with their partner agencies, SRA
Regional/Provincial/Municipal Technical Working Groups (TWGs) and the concerned
provincial and municipal chief executives.

SEC. 5. The identification and implementation of the specific projects to be
funded from the PAF shall be, to the extent possible, devolved to the concerned
municipal government in accordance with the objective of the PAF to build
capabilities of the local government units, particularly the poorest
municipalities, in the development and implementation of anti-poverty programs.
The principal implementing agencies, partner agencies and their regional and
provincial offices, and the provincial government units shall provide the
requisite technical assistance to the municipal governments to enable this.

SEC. 6. The beneficiary city and municipal LGUs shall contribute to the cost
of implementing the PAF projects in their localities as their stake in the
implementation of the projects. In no case shall the cost sharing for each
project be less than 10 percent of the total project cost.

SEC. 7. Principal implementing agencies may request realignment of the
savings from each program component under the PAF to address the gaps in the
provision of services needed in each of the target municipalities and cities,
provided that the provincial entitlement provided for in Section 3 is
maintained. The Oversight Committee hereinbelow created, shall review and
endorse these requests to DBM for approval subject to existing budgeting and
accounting rules and regulations.

SEC. 8. The concerned principal agencies in coordination with their partner
agencies shall submit their individual program management guidelines and
specifications of projects to be funded from the PAF no later than ten (10)
calendar days from the approval of this Executive Order and Implementing Rules
and Regulations to the Oversight Committee which shall review and approve these
for dissemination to the concerned implementing national and local government
units. The principal agencies shall provide their respective regional offices
with this Executive Order and Implementing Rules and Regulations and their
respective agency guidelines to ensure smooth implementation of the PAF at all
levels.

SEC. 9. The appropriations for the PAF, excluding those for the housing,
resettlement and MBN-CBIS programs, shall be released directly to the regional
offices of the principal agencies to facilitate program implementation and
monitoring of the progress in utilizing the PAF, subject to budgeting and
accounting rules and regulations. Fund releases shall be based on the list of
project packages and work plans submitted by the PAF-Regional Technical Working
Groups (RTWG) within the time fixed by the Oversight Committee as stipulated in
the Implementing Rules and Regulations.

SEC. 10. In the case of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM),
funds shall be released to the central offices of the principal agencies.
Subsequently, the concerned principal agencies shall enter into a Memorandum of
Agreement with the Office of the Regional Governor of the ARMM, who shall
oversee the implementation of PAF by the local government units in the region.

SEC. 11. An Oversight Committee chaired by the SRA Lead Convenor, is hereby
created to oversee the implementation of the PAF composed of representatives
from the following agencies as members:

National Economic and
Development Authority
Department of Budget and Management
Department of Interior and Local Government
Presidential Commission to Fight Poverty
Presidential Council for Countryside Development
League of Provinces of the Philippines
League of Municipalities of the Philippines
League of Cities of the Philippines
Liga ng mga Barangay sa Pilipinas
Representative from the SRC Basic Sector Counterpart Council (BSCC)

SEC. 12. The Oversight Committee shall undertake periodic review and
revision of the PAF Implementing Rules and Regulations as the need arises.

SEC. 13. This Executive Order shall take effect immediately.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 4th day of April in the year of
Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety-Seven.

(Sgd.) FIDEL
V. RAMOS
President of the Philippines

By the President

(Sgd.) RUBEN D. TORRES
Executive Secretary

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