[ Manila Bulletin Online ] May 26, 2008
By BEN D. ARCHE
DIGOS CITY — A group of Japanese officials visited Davao del Sur the other week to know what they could do to help beneficiaries of the agrarian reform program of the government as implemented by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).
Abundio Baliong, DAR provincial officer, said the team came from Tokyo, Japan composed of representatives of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).
He said the team is in a fact-finding mission for the first phase of the Mindanao Sustainable Settlement Area Development (MINSSAD) program of the government in cooperation with the JBIC for a multi-million loan package agreement.
MINSSAD is a multi-million integrated development project that includes basic social services, agriculture/agri-business, infrastructure and environmental enhancement/agro-forest development for the agrarian reform communities (ARC’s).
Baliong identified the visitors as Country Officer Akinori Naganawa; Himorichi Kitada, engineer and deputy team director, and Kae Mihara, social development officer.
They were accompanied by JBIC Manila-resident representative Hiroshi Watanabe, MINSSAD Consultant Itsuo Kihara, and MINSSAD executive director Percival Dalugdog who led the team to the municipality of Matanao, Davao del Sur.
MINSSAD is now on its second phase of implementation, Esther Geyrozaga, DAR provincial information officers said.
Meeting with concerned officials, site visits and assessment of MINSSAD 1 project were among the top concern of the mission.
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