The region needs you!

If you are an officer or a member of a private sector organization (PSO) and you want to play a role in helping push the development of our region, then you might just be the right person that the Regional Development Council (RDC) 2 needs.

Because this year, the RDC 2 will once again open its doors to a new set of private sector representatives (PSRs) as the three-year term of the current set of 12 PSRs is about to end.

PSRs have an essential participation in the RDC 2 and they comprise one-fourth of the fully constituted Council. They are expected to contribute in the development planning process by helping in the review and endorsement of proposed programs and projects, participating in problem-solving sessions in addressing project implementation bottlenecks, and assisting in building partnerships with other development partners, among others.

The PSRs who will sit in the Council should, thus, have a strong commitment to perform these and other equally important responsibilities and to participate in all the activities of the RDC 2. They are selected via an election process according to the sectors they represent.

Who can nominate and who can be nominated

PSOs across the region are, therefore, invited to nominate a maximum of two officers or members of their organization who have been very active for at least two years.

But first, the nominating PSOs should be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission or should be duly accredited by any government agency such as the Department of Labor and Employment, the Cooperative Development Authority, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Education, the Department of Health, the Department of Agriculture, the Philippine Council for NGO Certification, and the provincial and city LGUs, among others.

Also, nominating PSOs should have conducted socio-economic activities for at least three years since its registration.

More importantly, they should have at least two or more provinces in the region as its service area and should serve any of the development sectors that the RDC2 covers, namely: agriculture and fisheries; education and manpower; health and social welfare; indigenous groups; labor; commerce, industry, tourism, and services; infrastructure and utilities; environment and natural resource; and development administration.

The nomination and selection process

By the end of July, the RDC Secretariat shall be conducting three provincial consultations where potential nominating PSOs will be convened: one in Cagayan for Cagayan and Batanes PSOs, one in Isabela for Isabela PSOs, and one in Quirino for Quirino and Nueva Vizcaya PSOs.

During these gatherings, the RDC Secretariat will be providing a briefing about the roles and responsibilities of PSRs in the Council and will be distributing the nomination forms.

After which, a regional convention shall be conducted where the shortlisted nominees shall be presented and the election for the sectoral and geographic PSRs shall be done.

The newly-elected PSRs shall be confirmed in the subsequent RDC2 meeting which will signal the start of their three-year term from 2016 up to 2019.

A total of 12 PSRs are expected to be elected who will sit in the RDC 2 as well as in its four sectoral committees (Social Development Committee, the Economic Development Committee, the Infrastructure Development Committee, the Committee on Development Administration and Communication) and some support committees such as the Regional Committee on Sustainable Development, the Regional Land Use Committee, and the Regional Project Monitoring Committee. #