(Delivered during the awarding ceremonies of the Open Government Award in the United States of America, September 25, 2014)

For 2014 USD 450.9 million and in 2015, about USD 470.1 million in projects were discussed, debated and agreed by citizens, elected duty bearers of  the  government local  level, national government implementers – built consensus on a local poverty reduction action plan and on that basis propose the allocation of funds from the national budget. This is power of the people, this is grassroots participatory budgeting.

This effort  involved an estimated of 10,000  citizens organizations and CSOs in 1,590 cities and municipalities implementing 16,269 projects.

The constructive engagement of all stakeholders – citizens, CSOs , government / is key in the process; changing the ways we do project design, implementation and evaluation and audit trail are some of the challenges we continue to face.

Thank you for the recognition and I am accepting this award on behalf of all the citizens of the Philippines who invested time, talent and treasure in this effort.

Thank you.