By BEVERLY C. PAOYON
ALABEL, Sarangani (January 11, 2012) – Just as 2012 opened, financial assistance has started to pour in as supplementary fund from a nationally-acclaimed awards body as testimony of Sarangani’s good governance.
On Tuesday (January 10), officials bared that Sarangani has received the P10M Performance Challenge Fund for having earned the Seal of Good Housekeeping Award from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The fund has now been credited to Sarangani’s account at the Development Bank of the Philippines under Special Allotment Release Order No. G-11-01858.
This will fund scores of priority programs and projects that Governor Migs Dominguez endorsed to DILG immediately after the latter notified the provincial government on requirements for the availment of the incentive.
The P10M will only fund programs and projects anchored on the Millennium Development Goals broken down into P3.465-million for the improvement/rehabilitation or construction of 13 day-care centers across Sarangani, the P2.5-million Kalinaw Fort Sarangani Landmark, and the completion of the Regional Trial Court building amounting to P4 million.
The province’s commendable performance on the aspects of good governance, transparency, and accountability made it bag the Seal of Good Housekeeping Award.
The award was aimed at recognizing local government units having good governance and practice the values of good planning, sound fiscal management, transparency and accountability, and valuing of performance monitoring.
The same award was also given to three out of the seven municipalities of Sarangani with corresponding monetary incentive of P2 million for Glan and P1 million each for Maitum and Alabel.
Officials said the provincial government has projected significant milestones this year as they gauged this award (Seal of Good Housekeeping) would drive optimism in local government ranks to do better and innovate more.
Meanwhile, Governor Dominguez will also receive the Galing Pook Award at Malacanang Palace this month.
“Your program entry (Justice Enhancement and Empowerment Program) has been selected as one of the ten outstanding local governance programs in the Galing Pook Awards 2011,” said Eddie Dorotan, executive director of Galing Pook, in a letter to the governor.
Dorotan said the awarding ceremony may be held “within the fourth week of January.”
Sarangani’s Justice Enhancement and Empowerment Program (JEEP), which carries the mobile court “Justice On Wheels” (JOWs) project, bested more than a hundred entries coming from all over the country in the course of screening and tedious selection process that concluded in November 2011.
Only Sarangani and 17 others qualified to the panel presentation and interview as the selection’s final step on November 29 at the Ateneo de Manila.
People’s participation and empowerment, innovation, transferability and sustainability, and efficiency of program delivery were among the criteria of the Galing Pook Award.
In his 10-minute presentation, Dominguez underscored innovations and outstanding accomplishments that gave impact on successful reduction of inmates at Sarangani’s provincial jail because the mobile court has resolved several cases since it first rolled out in January 2009.
The initiatives of the provincial government to help dispense justice with JOWS are “fulfillment of a social as well as moral obligation.”
It is aimed at easing “dockets of the court by providing a venue of trial in the municipality the mobile court can be transported," a JOWS briefer said.
On the other hand, a string of successes in 2011 that comprised of the Early Childhood Care Development (ECCD) on Horse, JeepneED, and other education reform program activities had continuously stirred innovative intervention for the provincial government.
Sarangani’s partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund improved services on ECCD on Horse home-based education that addressed the lack of pre-school facilities in the hinterlands of Sarangani.
Also last year, the province was launched as the country’s pilot area for the mobile science laboratory called JeepneED, a mobile lab equipped with 10 netbooks, 3G hub for internet connectivity, and basic science materials that students will find helpful for their learning.
Presently, the provincial government is continuously giving all out support to Alabel Central Elementary School which has been included in the shortlist of schools in Mindanao vying for the 80-laptops program of Procter&Gamble Phils.
Alabel Central Elementary School is still the highest so far in the votes cast. Online voting at e.Estudyante Facebook page https://apps.facebook.com/e-studyante/index.php/entries would be until March 2012.
At the environment protection front, the Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape-Protected Area Management Board (SBPS-PAMB) was able to get from the owners of MV Double Prosperity the total compensation package of P20 million, which constitutes the P10 million representing the actual valuation of experts for the actual damage, and additional P10 million allotted for the rehabilitation of the damaged reef.
The Panamanian-registered vessel MV Double Prosperity ran aground at Bacud Reef, Kiamba, on May 8, 2011 while passing the Sarangani strait enroute to India from Australia.
“The use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) under RA 9285, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2004, and sans going to the rigorous procedures of the regular court, as the main legal strategy, hastened the compensation of damages against the offending vessel,” said Atty. Arnel Zapatos, provincial legal officer.
“This case was first of its kind successfully prosecuted by the SBPS-PAMB, and duly acknowledged by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, as first, anywhere in the Philippines. This is also the first case which had triumphantly taken compensation against a foreign merchant vessel, not doing business in the Philippines. This is also the first case of the largest foreign merchant vessel which ran aground in the area of Mindanao and the Visayas, which was successfully arrested by the Philippine Coast Guard using its protective authority on the environment,” Zapatos added. For more news and updates about Sarangani, please visit www.sarangani.gov.ph (Beverly C. Paoyon/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)
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