MP provincial gov’t best practices cited

TRAILS UP NORTH
Glo Abaeo Tuazon

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- Most agencies and organizations have something unique and special about them that make them different from other entities. In the provincial government of the Mountain Province, a list of their “best practices” were cited as something that set them apart.

Though most governmental practices in consonance with national, regional policies and laws were enumerated, the ingenuity, appropriateness and creativeness of the thoughts and facts that conceived these ideas were timely.

On the list under Administrative Organization is the MP Pinagpagan Health and Social Services Team created by Executive Order No.2, s. 2009. This is a convergence of all programs to include health, nutrition, malaria action, council for protection of children and alternative learning system.. This provincial program trickles down to the municipal to barangay levels as it considers and involves the same clients. On the Children’s Code spelled out under SPO No. 24, s. 2009, the Essential Health Package is implemented in a tri-memorandum of agreement scheme among the departments of Education, Health and provincial government. Others:

Creation of Sources and Revenues. Referred to as the Lang-ay Social Marketing and Resource Generation committee, this group was created as mainstay of the 2009 Lang-ay Festival. The committee included members from all over the world collectively known as the imaginary 11th Municipality of MP natives living outside the province or country. During the 2009 festival, this group generated the biggest financial support.

Ancestral Domain and Natural Resources. The creation of the Provincial Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources helped monitor the implementation of programs vis-a-vis plans that are relevant to ancestral domains and natural resources. acting as the Provincial Development Coordinating Council. Programs include one million tree program, Mt. Data watershed protection, farmer information tech services and others.

Personal family and personal relationship. This is a corporate social support system as an expansion to the usual pasasalamat and paalam program for retiring and transferring employess. Inspired by the provincial government and guided by the dictum “charity begins at home”, the culture of sharing through voluntary contributions for employees in dire need and also the song rendered by the provincial capitol choir during happy occasions or wakes after office hours were initiated.

Urban and rural planning development. Reach-out programs where the provincial government holds the PPOC meetings in different municipalities where some decisions are based on municipal and barangay development plans. Other issue-based concerns relevant to urban and rural development are also addressed.

Economic, Social and Tourism. The tailoring of the Lang-ay Festival to attract more tourists resulted in to more generated income and other social functions and responsibilities. The globalization of the Lang-ay was also manifested in the launching of the Festival in Toronto, Canada last July 16-19.

Educational Policies. MAKSI Program (Makabasa, Makasulat sin Iyun-a) and the DALOG Program (Development Alternative Livelihood Opportunities for Growth and Development). This is designed to educate the illiterate and also to increase the number of library users. The former is financed by the provincial government supervised by DepEd and the latter in partnership with TESDA.

Preservation and development of cultural heritage. The provincial historical research Committee was formed to preserve cultural heritage through documentation projects and publication of historical facts. The creation of the local School of Living Traditions made significant theatrical presentations such as the Sinauliyan. The networking with UP-Diliman and IGO also resulted in the performance of the Taraw Siblaw Celestial Maiden Story.

Paradigm shifting of simple things made meaningful such as the introduction of gongs instead of trophies or plaques was also introduced. Other matters such as the introduction of fingerprint machine in place of the bundy clocks for DTRs and the observance of protocol lines during dignitary visits were commended. -- Email: twilight_glo@yahoo.com