CITY HALL'S MUSHROOM PROGRAM Archival: It's “vote-buying”

Councilor Nestor Archival Sr. believes the mushroom cultivation program under the city's livelihood assistance is a form of "vote-buying."

- Iris Hazel Mascardo Staff Member

This following an executive session conducted by the council to probe the livelihood assistance of the city, particularly the mushroom cultivation program.

"It is something that we cannot understand, and second thing, for me, I think it is vote-buying," Archival, who led the probe, told The Freeman yesterday (Sunday) in a phone interview.

He said that the program is primarily executed by the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP), which presented their national mandate that backed their initiative on the provision of the livelihood program. However, Archival assessed that the DWUP should still be overseen by an expert in implementing these projects.

During the discussion, Archival said that when it was presented, no definite expertise was behind the implementation of the program. He added that the DWUP got themselves a consultant to train them, which shouldn't be the case.

"But ang nahitabo, gi-train sila, ang gitagaan og sampling dili, what is the purpose of training the trainers, when in fact, dili sila ang mu-train?" said Archival.

He further added that despite laying down the number of beneficiaries, there was no definitive data provided, even during the test pilot of the program. According to him, it is important that there should be data, even during the test pilot, in order to determine its feasibility.

He added that what the DWUP did instead was identify the homeowners who would be the beneficiaries, provide them with a seminar, and then offer the seed capital, which is around P4,000.

Archival, however, said that beneficiaries will have the freedom to acquire the mushroom spawn after the seed capital is provided.