Good Governance at Work

CEBU, Philippines - Doing your best in order to win in a competition is not an easy task. Keeping yourself ahead in the game and maintaining the win, however, is an even harder thing to accomplish.

This is the experience of the winners of the eGWEN Our Cebu Program of the Cebu Provincial Government and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. eGWEN stands for expanded Green and Wholesome Environment that Nurtures. It was launched in August 4, 2008 to provide the different towns in the province a comprehensive rebuilding framework that is directed to making Cebu an attractive place to live, work, play, invest and do business.

The different local government units in the province, from the municipal or city level down to the barangay level, are judged based on the different criteria under categories such as cleanliness, sanitation and health; greening, protection and enhancement of the environment; creativity, artistry and aesthetic impact; appreciation, promotion and nurturing culture and heritage; and governance systems and structures.

Former mayor and now vice mayor Alfredo Arquillano of the Municipality of San Francisco in Camotes Island shared that the road to winning in the eGWEN Our Cebu was a difficult one. San Francisco was awarded as this year’s eGWEN Grand Champion, an award the town also won in 2009.

“We have very limited resources in our town and if you look at the different categories and their respective criteria, you will know that program requires us LGUs to do a lot of things. Since we needed to accomplish a lot of things with the limited resources that we have, we promoted volunteerism and encouraged everyone to participate. We organized small communities in the purok and sitio level and made sure the basic services reach the people,” the vice mayor said, adding that winning the first time was harder. “It was difficult to get people to participate at first. Can you imagine that it took us a long time to convince our constituents to cooperate in waste management,” he said.

The people of San Francisco, however, realized that participating can do them good and soon realized that they have a role to play as citizens, Vice Mayor Arquillano said.

Mayor Rex Gerona of the Municipality of Tabuelan, which won second place in the Exemplary LGU category for two years in a row, echoed the concerns of Vice Mayor Arquillano, especially about limited resources. “It is not easy to start implementing projects when you have financial limitations. However, it is important for the local chief executive to be able to budget and balance priorities. There are projects that are big but have little impact while there are small projects that have big impact,” he said.

The advantage of competitions such as eGWEN, Mayor Gerona added, was that “people are moved to do something until it becomes the normal thing to do.”

When asked what they both did to emerge as the two top winners in the competition for two years in a row, both said they just did their jobs as local chief executives.

“If you look at the criteria and the scorecard, you will realize that everything that is in there is what we local chief executives are supposed to do. It’s our job,” emphasized Vice Mayor Arquillano.

“We just stuck to the scorecard and did our best. The secret really is to prioritize the doable projects,” said Mayor Gerona.

Mayor Teresito Mariñas of the Municipality of Barili, the 3rd placer in the Exemplary LGU award, said that scorecards gave the LGUs objective grades. “They really have a positive effect; they helped us improve to get higher grades, and they bring about healthy competition among LGUs.”

Vice Mayor Arquillano and Mayor Gerona proudly shared that they were able to implement more projects with the prizes they won – livelihood projects for San Francisco and a machine that can recycle plastics for Tabuelan.

While the road to Win Number 1 for both municipalities was filled with difficulties, Win Number 2 was filled with pressure, a whole lot of pressure in fact, especially for two-time grand champion San Francisco, Camotes.

“There was really so much pressure to win again. We are already on top and we cannot accept if we do not end up there again,” he said. “That’s why we really tried harder, exerted more effort to make our projects even more effective or to implement projects that will benefit the people more.”

Ruth Rowena Alensonorin, executive director of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. – Center for Integrated Area Development or CIAD, said that they are now working on institutionalizing the program at the LGU level and strengthening private sector participation through projects like Balik Lungsod for balikbayans to know their role in development and Adopt A Town for different establishments to help different towns through their Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR projects.

“We are also planning on establishing centers of excellence where LGUs can learn from the good practices of the winning LGUs. Like for example the solid waste management program of San Francisco. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources can provide theory and Vice Mayor Al can do the practicum for LGUs who want to learn how to do it,” she said.

Alensonorin is optimistic that more and more LGUs will exert efforts to excel in the eGWEN Our Cebu project. “There are still mayors who are difficult to convince to participate because of problems like funding limitations. But the towns of San Francisco and Tabuelan are proof that this project, this competition is not about money. It’s about governance,” she concluded. ?