DILG-7 and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)-7 conducted Community-Based Monitoring System (CBMS) Regional Stakeholders Virtual Forum today, October 6, 2021 via Webex.

The virtual activity aims to raise awareness and capacitate stakeholders on CBMS program and further strengthen coordination and cooperation of DILG-7, PSA-7, and local government units in the national roll out and implementation of CBMS in FY 2022.

Highlights of the activity were the ceremonial signing of memorandum of agreement for the pilot implementation of CBMS in Central Visayas this year, which was signed by Mayor Galicano Truita of Dauin, Negros Oriental, Dir. Trovela, and PSA-7 Dir. Ariel Florendeno and, and the sharing of CMBS experiences by Carcar City and Municipality of San Remigio.

Participants were provincial and city directors, as well as field officers and personnel of DILG-7 and its sub-regional offices, local chief executives, Sanggunian Committee on Appropriation Chairs, and Local Planning and Development Coordinators in Central Visayas.

For his part, Trovela underscored the important role of CBMS in the processing and identifying of relief operations beneficiaries in LGUs.“The LGU-CBMS databases can be used to quantify, identify and conduct mapping of income and food poor households and families.

It can also be used for generating list, location, and verification of poor or vulnerable households and families with at least one or combination of the qualified characteristics for the implementation of social amelioration and other related safety net programs,” he said.

Meanwhile, LGOO VI Jerson Obo gave a thorough discussion on the salient points of CBMS and the results of the survey conducted by the Philippine Institute of Development Studies on CBMS as tool in development planning.

The activity also urged LGUs to include CBMS in their Aunnual Investment Program for 2022 to ensure funding for the national roll out next year.

CBMS is a diagnostic tool used to assess the poverty in LGUs that can be used for evidence-based planning and budgeting at the local level.