MANILA, Philippines -- Pooling funds together, five neighboring municipalities in North Cotabato province bought their own heavy equipment and built unpaved yet functional farm-to-market roads at about P30,000 per kilometer -- not as much as P1 million if the project were handled by the government and private contractors.
In Marikina City, pupils are getting free school supplies in exchange for recyclable materials they bring to campus. In San Carlos City in Negros Occidental province, officials made the politically unpopular decision of adding a 75-centavo levy per cubic meter in water bills so they could raise funds to protect the local watershed.
The Isabela provincial government, in partnership with the National Food Authority, buys rice and corn from farmers at P1 and P2 higher than the rates offered by big traders and middlemen. Six out of 10 complaints or disputes among Cebu City residents have been resolved at the barangays (villages) without having to go to the courts.
These were among the 10 local government projects chosen for the 2007 Galing Pook Awards, which recognizes programs that serve as models for other towns and cities, with the hope that they will be continued even after new political leaders have taken over.
The awardees are to be formally announced Thursday morning in a press conference at Serye Restaurant at the Quezon City Memorial Circle. Actual awarding will be held in Malacañang on Feb. 28.
Local gov?t initiatives
Away from the fracas and gridlocks of national politics, programs in poverty alleviation, environment, peace and order, and other fields have thrived quietly in the grassroots, according to an official of Galing Pook (?Great Place?) Foundation, a network of 67 organizations from the public and private sectors, civil society, media and the academe.
The group has been recognizing innovative and sustainable local government initiatives since 1992.
?While we see the light of hope in local government units, it?s quite sad that we?re not being inspired by what?s happening in the national level,? said Dr. Eddie Dorotan, the foundation?s executive director and former mayor of Irosin, Sorsogon. Dorotan himself earned a Galing Pook Award (GPA) for his town during his mayoralty from 1992 to 1998.
The GPA is given to projects (not individuals) that devised creative solutions to old problems; yielded concrete, measurable results; drew public participation (whether from schoolchildren, housekeepers, farmers, etc.); can be ??replicated? in other LGUs, and can survive changes in the administration, Dorotan explained in an interview Wednesday.
It was first handed out in 1992 with the Asian Institute of Management serving as its secretariat. In 1996, it received a $1-million endowment from the Ford Foundation, and interest earned from that fund has since been sustaining the award-giving body, Dorotan said.
Awardees
Out of the 141 projects nominated, the following were chosen for the 2007 GPA by a selection committee chaired by former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cielito Habito:
In Bindoy town, Negros Oriental, a ?health insurance program for the poor? made medicines and hospital services more affordable to 73 percent of the households. A covered home was required to pay a ?counterpart? premium of only P120 per year, the rest being shouldered by the government.
If the family can?t immediately pay in cash, it can pay ?in kind? or render community service.
In Cebu City, 60 percent of the cases brought before the barangay justice system were resolved off-court, the disputes stemming from neighborhood spats, petty crimes, unpaid debts, minor damage to property, etc. This was after the city?s League of Peace Councils, covering 80 barangays, invested in training members in conflict resolution.
It was estimated that for every case that was settled, complainants and respondents saved up to P10,000 in legal fees.
In Infanta, Quezon, a town still reeling from painful memories of ?Reming,? the killer typhoon which ravaged the population in late 2006, a public-private sector partnership has since trained quick-response teams, mapped areas most prone to floods and landslides, and invested in early warning systems, rescue vehicles and equipment, and regular emergency drills.
In Isabela, the capitol allotted P4.5 million to subsidize rice and corn production and helped grains farmers fetch higher prices for their harvests. Since it was implemented in 2005, the scheme has benefited some 87,500 rice and 85,000 corn farmers.
Las Piñas, Marikina, Naga
In Las Piñas City in Metro Manila, a housing program for the urban poor has moved some 36,700 families out of the slums and into decent homes they can call their own for the past 10 years. For the sheer scale of this achievement, it has earned the Galing Pook seal.
In Marikina since 2004, 18 public schools have been collecting recyclable household items brought by the students each week. Pupils earn ?points? for every kilo of materials turned in, and they can exchange these points for pens, notebooks, dictionary and educational toys from a mobile store that visits the campus twice a year.
A total of 238,000 kilos of ?waste? -- valued at P1.3 million -- have since been recovered and diverted from dumpsites and landfills.
In Naga City, Ramon Magsaysay awardee and Mayor Jesse Robredo has been training future local government leaders through internships. His City Youth Month program has since tapped 689 participants.
Palma Alliance
Aspiring interns are said to be in constant competition to qualify for the 45 slots available in the executive and legislative departments of the capitol.
In North Cotabato, there is now the so-called ?Palma Alliance.? Five municipalities -- Pigcawayan, Alamada, Libungan, Midsayap and Aleosan -- have decided to combine resources and put up their own road-building crew as a much cheaper alternative to hiring private contractors.
Since 2002, the alliance has opened and repaired 281.45 km of farm-to-market roads, which, in turn, increased farming incomes and reduced transportation costs in their 145 barangays. It currently maintains two construction fleets, each consisting of a bulldozer, a grader, three to four dump trucks and a compacter.
In San Mateo town in Isabela, farmers have been trained to cultivate monggo in between rice seasons, both to augment their income and to help restore organic materials in the soil after years of chemical-intensive farming.
Introduced in 2002, this cropping pattern now covers a total of 70,000 hectares, yielding additional net earnings of up to P25,000 to P30,000 per hectare.
The high-protein produce also helped arrest child malnutrition. Many women organizations also turned monggo-based delicacies into a business.
In San Carlos, watershed areas accounting a total of 5,000 ha are being secured by forest guards against illegal loggers and are being rehabilitated through regular tree-planting activities. This was after the local government convinced consumers to pay a levy of 75 centavos per cu.m. of water drawn from the watersheds.
The collection, amounting to P1.2 million each year, goes to a fund used for watershed protection. Some 211,000 trees have been planted since the project began in 2005.
