The previous issue of the Tribune featured the rankings of the province and the 11 towns in the 2024 Cities and Municipalities Competitiveness Index (CMCI), essentially a guide for the business community in deciding where to locate or place their investments.
Developed by the National Competitiveness Council with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the cities and towns are ranked based on the five main pillars of economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, resiliency, and innovation.
Although five municipalities in Catanduanes showed improvement in their CMCI rankings, only four of the 11 towns were in the upper half of their respective class: Virac is 200th among 509 first-class municipalities; Viga is 263rd out of 660 3rd to 4th class towns; and among 316 5th to 6th class towns, Bato placed 19th while Panganiban is155th.
Interestingly, this week’s edition carries an article on the seven towns which recently received a total of P12.9 million in grants from the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP) intended to address the high percentage of childhood stunting in the province.
The grants are to be used in nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions to improve key health behaviors that are linked to reducing stunting in targeted local government units.
This means the recipient LGUs do not deserve congratulations for getting the grants, as obviously they have not been successful in implementing their respective nutrition programs for pregnant mothers and children 0 to 59 months old.
Except for San Miguel which has the least stunted children on the island, the other beneficiary towns – Bagamanoc (#6), Caramoran (#3), Gigmoto (#1), San Andres (#4), Viga (#2) and Virac (#7) – are in the top seven LGUs here with high percentage of stunting.
The odd man out is Baras, which is 5th on the stunting ranks, but as it was explained, the target municipalities were chosen based not only on the number of stunted children, but also the number of pregnant women, lactating mothers, and adolescent children.
According to the World Health Organization, stunting, or low height-for-age, holds children back from reaching their physical and cognitive potential.
It results from chronic or recurrent undernutrition usually associated with poor socioeconomic conditions, poor maternal health and nutrition, frequent illness, and/or inappropriate infant and young child feeding and care in early life.
This is why the public’s curiosity should be aroused in noting that except for Virac and Viga, all the other five towns which received PMNP grants all belonged to the low-performing half of their class in the 2024 competitiveness index.
A glance at the CMCI website on how this index is computed shows that of the five core components, only two – Governance Efficiency and Infrastructure – have indicators involving health.
Among the 10 indicators in Governance Efficiency is the Capacity of Health Services while in Infrastructure, the health indicator is composed of public and private data for facilities and rooms available.
The website does not show how the LGU’s health services capacity is measured but we can be fairly sure that it does not take into account how its health programs and projects are implemented.
The provincial government certainly cannot be blamed entirely for the poor performance of its 11 LGUs in the Operation Timbang survey or the 2024 CMCI, as the data is gleaned from each of the component municipalities.
As explained by the Provincial Nutrition Action Office, each LGU has its own funded nutrition program, with the provincial government providing only augmentation either through a separate but complementary project or limited funding.
Clearly, the local chief executives of the seven PMNP grantee towns (except for San Miguel) should endeavor to realize their commitment to successfully implementing nutrition programs in the next six months.
This goal they should take seriously, lest an increase in the number of stunted children in their towns be taken against them in their reelection bids next year.