“Dahil sa KALAHI-CIDSS natuto kami sa mga bagay na hindi namIn inakalang kaya pala namin. Nagkaroon kami ng  napakaraming pagkakataon upang makatulong sa aming barangay.”

Alipio Viloria proudly said this during the Municipal Inter-barangay Forum – Participatory Resource Allocation held last May, where they ranked number one (1). Their proposed sub-project, which  is Communal irrigation System will control the flood in the village during rainy season. With a total of Php 9,119,200.00 from DSWD Grant and Php 156,500.00 from the Local Counterpart Contribution, this project is set to start early August once the money has been downloaded to their Barangay bank account.

Villoria, 47 years old and married with three children, is farmer and as a part time tricycle driver. He has also served his village by being a village police.

 “Simula ng maging volunteer ako sa KALAHI-CIDSS, nagbago na aking pananaw sa buhay. Hindi ko inakalang may magagawa ako para sa aking barangay. “said Villoria.

For him, learning how to process documents, procurement and taxes are some of his great experiences during the seminars and workshops that the program provided. He did not expect that he will experience attending such activities because he did not even finish elementary. “Never in my wildest dreams that I will get the chance to sit down with the people who work for the government and at the same time to create our own project proposals,” he said. 

 With these, he gained self-confidence; he was able to talk in front of a big crowd while discussing their project proposal with confidence.  Now, he believes that he can do much better than being a farmer and a driver.

Their village is situated in a low lying area and during rainy season, the residents experience heavy floods. There were times when they experienced strong floods which resulted to some casualties. There was an instance wherein 10 people from the village were drowned because of heavy rains. Five survived and the other five were dead  and Villoria’s brother was one of them. Since then, when heavy rains or typhoons occur, he gets worried for their safety. 

That is why we are very thankful that our village is one of the beneficiaries of KALAHI-CIDSS, Villoria said. “Malaki ang naitulong ng programa sa mga pagbabago sa aming barangay.  at habang buhay naming pasasalamatan ang KALAHI-CIDSS sa mga ibinigay at ibibigay pang pagbabago sa aming buhay. ### (jdp-KC)