19 gov’t agencies take closer look at poverty in CamSur town
In between giggles, 13-year-old John Lester Ramos shared with the group what he had learned that day from the representative of the government’s population management agency: For youngsters his age, it is dangerous for a girl to get pregnant and for a boy to make a girl pregnant.
Ramos was among nine teenagers clustered in a corner of the covered court inside the municipal government’s compound in Presentacion, Camarines Sur, on May 28. They listened intently to Harvi Ferreras of the Population Commission who explained their rights, proper values and the need to prevent teenage pregnancy.
In the far end corner of the place, where about 1,000 residents converged to avail themselves of services offered by 19 national government agencies, was another group of women experiencing pregnancy for the first time. Two nurses from the Department of Health (DOH) were telling them what was happening inside their wombs and the care needed to nurture yet unborn babies.
On one side of the court, Pfc. Mario Baldoza Jr., 27, was repairing an electric fan brought by a resident while in another corner, two other soldiers were cutting the hair of two men.
‘Closer to people’
The presence of about a hundred government representatives, including Army soldiers, to this poor fourth-class municipality (annual income: P15 million-P25 million; population: 35,000) by the sea indicated literally the goal of “bringing the government closer to the people,” said one government official.
Presentacion is 88 kilometers from the regional center of Naga City and had been isolated from other towns until a road was opened in 2013 that went all the way to the famous tourist town of Caramoan.
(In August 2004, the town grabbed media attention when communist rebels freed two soldiers—Lt. Ronaldo Fidelino and Pfc. Ronnel Nemeño—they held in captivity for six months to the International Red Cross in the upland village of Bicalen. The two were captured during a clash on March 1, 2004, in the neighboring area of Bataan, Tinambac, Camarines Sur, in which one soldier died and six others were wounded.)
Presentacion was the pilot area of the Regional Development Council’s “information and services caravan,” which allows government agencies a venue to inform grassroots communities about their programs and services, said Jasmin Zantua, chief economic development specialist of the National Economic and Development Administration (Neda) in Bicol who marshaled the project’s partners.
It was the first such activity initiated by Neda in the country and held for two days.
Most requested service
Zantua said medical services and medicines were the most requested by the residents, as well as assistance to agrarian-related issues of upland farmers. Unfortunately, the Department of Agrarian Reform was not represented in the caravan.
The attending agencies were the Department of Agriculture (DA), Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority, National Food Authority, Department of Science and Technology, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Labor and Employment, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority;
DOH, Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, National Nutrition Council, Commission on Higher Education, Department of Education, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Public Works and Highways, Maritime Industry Authority, Land Transportation Office (LTO), Philippine Statistics Authority and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
Mayor Jimmy Deleña saw the convergence of the 19 agencies as extremely beneficial to the residents because the services given, such as the issuance of driver’s license by the LTO, could be done only in Naga or Legazpi cities.
Convenience, savings
Alma D. Taomotorgo, 36, a mother of five who lives in the village of Maangas, the medical service provided in the caravan would cost her P50 for fare alone in going to Goa town, 32 km away. There is no private physician in Presentacion while the government doctor is not always around, she said.
A 70-year-old woman named Dolores (she did not give her surname) seemed unsatisfied. “I asked for vitamins, but I was given these,” she said, showing six capsules to control coughing.
Lt. Col, Joselito Pastrana, commander of the Army’s 42nd Infantry Battalion, acknowledged the shortage of medicines. The military’s supply, he said, had already been allotted for the soldiers.
The communications unit of the DA distributed pamphlets about the department’s programs and projects, according to its chief, Emily Bordado.
The caravan will be assessed and later replicated in other poor areas in Bicol, Zantua said.
