Bindoy receives award
as Pook Winner
by: Jennifer Catan-Tilos
President Gloria Macapagal–Arroyo awards the local government unit of Bindoy, Negros Oriental as Pook Winner for its “Health Insurance for the Poor” program, while Cebu City won the plum for “The League of Peace Councils.”
PGMA led the awarding ceremony on February 28, 2008 in Malacañang for the 10 winners of the 2007 Gawad Galing Pook Awards, a program that recognizes outstanding local government initiatives that promote people’s empowerment and participation in local development despite limited resources.
The awardees won recognition for outstanding performance in such diverse programs as social services, justice and economic development, infrastructure and environmental protection.
Infanta in Quezon province was adjudged winner of the community-based disaster preparedness and management; Isabela province for its “Price Support for Rice and Corn Farmers” program, while Las Pinas City won the “Land and Shelter for the Homeless” award.
The other winners were Marikina City’s Eco-Savers’ program; Naga City’s “Preparing Future Leaders” program; “Kabalikat PALMA Infrastructure project of the municipalities of Pigcawayan, Alamada, Libungan, Midsayap, and Aleosan in Cotabato; San Mateo’s (Isabela) “Munggo: Black Gold of San Mateo;” and San Carlos City’s ( Occidental Negros) “Water Levy for Watershed Development” program.
In Bindoy, Negros Oriental, indigent families are assured of an affordable health insurance program through the Bindoy SociaL Health Insurance Indigency Program (BSHIIP).
Under the BSHIIP, unlike in other areas where the municipal government assume the sole responsibility for the local premium counterpart, Bindoy’s leadership ensures that the province, municipality, barangays, and the sponsored families contributed their share in sustaining the program.
Cebu City has strengthened justice system in the grassroots level through the creation of the League of Peace Councils or Lupon which peacefully and amicably resolve conflicts in the community while dispensing justice in a professional manner.
Galing Pook Foundation chairman Rafael Conscuella said that the 10 winners came from around 90 finalists in the annual search for “Gawad” awardees.
“Our latest harvest of Pook Galing awardees illustrates better ways to make local government work; how to create responsive public institutions, deliver new services in new ways or simply strengthen citizen’s participation in governance,” Coscuella said.
Galvanized by so many disasters, Infanta in Quezon province created a Community-Based Disaster Preparedness and Management Program, which has made it one of the most disaster prepared areas in the country.
Under Infanta’s disaster preparedness program, every resident at every level has received training in responding appropriately to disasters or emergencies.
In Isabela province, one of the biggest rice and corn producers in the country, farmers are getting their fair share through the Price Stabilization Program for Rice and Corn. The cooperative program between the provincial government and the National Food Authority (NFA) has enabled farmers to get higher prices for their harvest by at least P2 than the prevailing farm gate prices of rice and corn.
In Naga City, the youth compete annually for 45 slots in executive and legislative positions in the city for a one-month term through the City Youth Month program.
In Cotabato, five contiguous municipalities pooled resources to build roads at roughly P30,000 a kilometer that resulted in increased agricultural productivity with the reduction of travel time by 50 percent.
San Carlos City in Occidental Negros charges 75 centavos water levy, which generates some P1.2 million annually for the city. The fund is used to preserve some 5,017 hectares of watershed and planting of 211,348 trees.
In San Mateo, Isabela, munggo bean is now known as “black gold,” referring to its cultivation as a back-up product and alternative crop planted between regular rice planting season.
The Las Pinas City government has set out to build houses for 36,710 homeless families who have been paying their amortization faithfully through the Savings Mobilization program.
Marikina City’s Eco-Savers program involves schoolchildren in waste segregation and recycling as collected recyclables earn points to buy educational toys, books and school supplies.
Through this program, some 238,000 kilos of waste have been diverted from dumpsites and recyclables that would have otherwise been ignored, have a money value of P1.3 million.
“These exemplary practices show that local governance is alive and well in the country,” Coscuella added. (PIA/JCT)
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Thu Mar 06, 2008 7:41 pm